So I have noticed from reading through posts and my own research that there isn’t much information on how mental health and psychology would be taken care of and implemented. I could very well be wrong and would appreciate anyone’s pointing me to an initial resource in order to understand more. And if it hasn’t been confronted as a problem, I would like to ruminate with others on what those possibilities could look like. We can’t eschew mental health.
It’s been documented that mental health is a serious issue in the anarchist community - Anxious? Depressed? You might be suffering from capitalism. Ideas developed among anarchists focusing on class struggle may have application to the general solarpunk community as well.
Disclaimer, I only read both of these diagonally.
The first, while focusing on a capitalism lens, isn’t a unique problem. It’s an alienation effect possible in any community. Reducing barriers to migration and employment can reduce it on a macro scale. On the micro scale it’s just the human condition.
The second, while certainly packaged toward a specific audience, does not differ from conventional thinking or guidance on mental health.
Would anarchists even cease to exist in solarpunk? It should just be a change of focus from a capitalist status quo to a solarpunk status quo. This distention is healthy for any society.
Right now we have a top-to-down mental health system. You visit a professional, receive a diagnosis from them, and then have access to medication. This situation often arises when a person cannot function in their work environment, or when stress in the work environment or stress due to financial pressure causes the person to have mental health episodes at home. I do believe that a lot of disorders aren’t really disorders to start with, but that people become disordered as an expression of trauma caused to them because they present differently from the majority or don’t fit into the behavioural confinements of their community.
In a solarpunk future we would hopefully not expect people to work eight hours a day, and commute two hours, and have two partners do this just so they can afford food and shelter. We would not bully people or discriminate them, or deprive them of basic resources and force them to somehow cope. Kids would grow up in an environment where their natural needs are respected, they would not be locked up in a classroom all day, their parents wouldn’t be stressed out of their minds all day. Access to health care would take care of non-capitalism-derived problems early, before they fester into full disorders.
There will still be cases of people who cannot fully take care of themselves or even are a danger to others, and as of now I don’t know? I guess each community will have to come up with a solution that works for them - it’s very much a case-to-case thing and not something that can or should be decided from above.
It’s tricky. I’m bipolar, and I need my medication to thrive, so we’ll need ways to compound those kinds of medications that aren’t at odds with solarpunk. What that looks like, I don’t know. I’d need more knowledge on how aripiprazole is created and a definition of “solarpunk” enough to combine them…
But also, I used to have severe issues with social anxiety. I still have the underlying anxiety predisposition, but improving my surroundings and the people around me helped with the anxiety.
I think a more solarpunk society will benefit the general mental health of a lot of people, but there are still going to be mental illnesses that need medical intervention.
But I think it’s also important to note that Solarpunk isn’t handed down from any governing body. There’s no strict dictation of what is and isn’t solarpunk and what does and doesn’t fit. We have general consensus, but it comes from the ground up, and it comes from what we talk about and how we talk about it. In short: If you want to discuss how mental health will be handled in a solarpunk society, the ball is in your court. It’s up to mentally ill folks and our advocates to determine our futures here.
Final caveat: I think there are some people in the solarpunk community who overlap with the… “natural is better” community. The “anti-chemical” community, or the “the only antidepressant you need is trees” community. That’s a problem we as individuals should definitely address. But again, how? Up to you and us.
I don’t know much about what your specific needs are, but I do agree with your general premise, which was supposed to be the jump off point to conversation.
However, your personal input is just as important as the advocates. Because if solarpunk is supposed to be community-based, making sure you are comfortable, and a comfortable member, of that community is imperative to not only your mental health but the mental wellness of the community. And for that, I feel like this discussion should include everyone.
I find, even among those without special needs, mental health is not correctly taken care of in a revolutionary community of any kind. And we risk a better environment and stagnating mental health system without understanding and questioning these possibilities.
I might have misread the bottom of your post, so just never mind that in regards to you being part of the discussion. I’ll leave my post so others know though.
"the only antidepressant you need is a hug” is my own personal background.
TL;DR: no change, like physical health, but more community focus is likely to improve outcomes.
I’m not exactly sure what you think would be different in solarpunk? The mental health continuum (like the physical) doesn’t change. Different indeginous groups have differing mental health practices and histories, but like physical health best practices shouldn’t be region dependant. This differences are primarily at healthy and pre-injury levels anyways (where I personally liked to see patient led decisions over imposed group decisions)
At the healthy end of things, solarpunk is more community based which creates more positive environments, but it’s not something easy to quantify, and thus compare.
At the warn/pre-injury level, community focus makes more resilient people and groups, so there should be more self-recovery from this part of the scale. Hard to quantify as above. Some additional social work here can also improve self-recovery, but that’s a resource question.
At injury, treatment is therapy supplimented with medications. When therapy resources are lacking other medical professionals lean on medication, but that’s a resource question. No change.
At severe injury, management is therapy supplimented with medications; with patient freedoms restriction to pervent self or others harm. No change.
I wrote a bunch of words in opposition to your statement, but after reading your other response, it is clear to me that you have a completely different view of mental health, and what solarpunk looks like. And I don’t think you have taken a lot of transitional information, disability information, racial information, gender information, economic information, educational information, or a few other things into account in your response.
It would be really helpful for further discussion if you backed up your reasoning with a direct refution of something they said. Even if it’s just an example. It’s a lot easier to keep discussing where we need more intersectional viewpoints if we know what you find lacking.
I didn’t think the obvious things like people who are disabled or have things like ADHD needed explanation, to be fair. And those things are basic enough to me to warrant a refute of the poster’s reasoning.
I’m sorry I’m not seeing a seemingly obvious connection.
We already consider disabilities and ADHD in the mental health continuum; so it’s not clear to me why would this need to change for solarpunk.
I would love to hear what needs to be changed specific to solarpunk, but may I suggest we close this specific comment line and focus on the other one?
I’d love to hear them.
it is clear to me that you have a completely different view of mental health
I career changed out of the psychology field quite some time ago, and even then I only worked a specific subset; so that will obviously influence my biases, though I’m pretty sure I’m awaiof all of them. I also try to keep current, but will never claim recency.
Has the mental health continuum/scale changed? I may have some archaisms or mis-translations in there.
I’d be interested in what’s biasing your views of mental health to help us find common ground.
I don’t think you have taken a lot of [transitional, disability, racial, gender, information, educational of other information] into account in your response.
Correct. These are environmental factors to mental health, and they wildy vary. These need to be considered regionally and individually, but nomoreso than they already are. These also can’t be considered wholesale for all of solarpunk because of their regional nature. I
f you have one specific solarpunk community, we can certainly dive in; but I can’t think of any that would apply to all solarpunk and only solarpunk. That’s not to say their aren’t any, maybe you have some ideas?
it is clear to me that you have a completely different view [of] what solarpunk looks like.
Our views probably diverge from the solarpunk manifesto. I take a more activist than scifi view, if that helps us find common ground.
I look forward to hearing your response. My guess is I have the professional background and you have the visionary spirit. This can often lead to a great partnership.
deleted by creator
