Why the Mental Health of Liberal Girls Sank First and Fastest
(jonathanhaidt.substack.com)
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Mental Health becoming a "phrase" alone was enough to destroy most of society. People cannot even put words into their issues, so they use "mental health" or the equally vague "depression," "anxiety" or "ADHD" which allows them to never have to confront it beyond a flippant excuse when called on something.
Of course this appeals to women more. Its not just "liberal girls," because very few girls who go to college don't become liberals along the way if they weren't already. Its assuming women have the same kind of deep seated convictions and principles men do, which shows a lack of understanding of "mental health" still. Especially as women overwhelmingly go into degree programs that are politicized and unwelcoming to non-liberal positions on a foundational level.
This is why they do what he called "reverse CBT." Because they don't want depression cured. The industry wants them forever feeling powerless and tethered to some treatment. The "sufferer" doesn't want to be free of their lifelong and infinite excuse for anything. They want to be that way, because it not only justifies all their flaws as a person (and any work they would have to do to work on them, as well as any moral failing that would undermine their self-righteousness), but makes them a permanent victim who can leverage that power in any ring.
Many of the chronic depressives don't want it cured either. They don't want to feel better, they want an unlimited and endless excuse.
I've got a degree in therapy and spent some time working in the industry. One of the biggest reasons I quit is because nobody wants to feel better. Everyone is just there because "talking and pills fix everything right?" and simply saying "I'm in therapy" is enough for some people to pretend they are working on it.
And, based on my experience and a lot of observation, 90% of people with "depression" don't have clinical depression, or any form of internally sourced depression at all that need any form of intervention. They have situational depression, which is literally just "something bad happened, I'm sad now" which they stretch into a long term thing by never dealing with it.
Like no shit you're fucking depressed, your life sucks. Stop treating the warning sign your body is giving you to get it together and instead just fucking get it together.
I will say therapy was handy for learning about cognitive behavioral therapy, but funny how my depression eased up once I:
left an environment I was alienated in
started keeping to a decent sleep schedule
stopped eating junk
started exercising regularly
And then you have all these people (women) saying iTs A cHeMiCaL iMbAlAnCe. Well yeah you're treating your body like garbage and taking drugs that further mess with your "chemicals" of course they're going to be out of whack.
And another thing, I'm not unconvinced that most of the people going to therapy, besides doing the above, just need actual friends or family they can talk to. Social connections are in the gutter for most people and getting worse by the decade. They're spending hundreds on what's essentially a rent-a-friend.
CBT helps separate the things you can change from the things you can't. It's a mindfulness/stoic technique, something many men have mastered throughout history without calling it CBT.
Women would benefit from CBT too, but they aren't that good at it (or it doesn't interest them). They tend to be far to attached to their emotions. I skimmed the article but it was mind-boggling how the author did not identify a key reason "liberal women" why were so caught up in these "anti-CBT behaviours" - those behaviours are all classically feminine:
I've said it before and will say it again, a major problem in Western society is everyone is becoming hyper-feminine and adopting these behaviours, which are useful for manipulating other people to gain some benefit, but will ultimately collapse the society if everyone is doing it (because not enough people are actually doing any work, they are all expecting someone else to fix things for them).