Transcribed by https://otter.ai and lightly edited.
Jenna Solomon 0:00
Before we begin, I just want to flag that this episode talks about sexual exploitation and substance abuse. Hello and welcome to Ease in Mzansi. I’m Jenna Salomon, and this is the podcast where we spotlight mental health support groups that can help us cope with the call to personal impact of South Africa’s big socio-economic issues.
0:31
So often in South Africa, when we talk about mental health, we talk about a problem that originates in the individual. You’ll hear people say things like, you need to see a psychologist, or you should try medicine. You, you, you and the solutions carry the same tone as well. But what about our broader context? Unemployment at 41%, 9 million South Africans facing hunger. In order to understand how issues like these impact on our mental health. I spoke to clinical psychologists Beulah Marks and Dr Shaheida Jansen. So to start with, can you perhaps give an example of a socio-economic issue impacting on someone’s mental health? We’ll start with you, Shahieda, and then we’ll go to Beulah.
Dr Shahieda Jansen 1:17
Do you know we often think of prostitution and drug addiction and those kind of vices, you know, as we don’t necessarily see it as part of socio-economic issues. But what I’ve become aware of is that often a girl might even start to sell her body in order to eat, or in order to have somebody buy books for her. Yeah. And so all kinds of transactional social relations develop around the issue of eating or not eating.
Beulah Marks 1:49
Yeah. I can think of another one which is quite prevalent in our context: unemployment and how people come into, in my case, individual therapy, mostly with such either self-recrimination or, you know, saying “it’s me”, “it’s something about me that’s, you know, causing me to be unemployed”. And they’re going to show extremes with that. So, sure we can look at, you know, what’s underlying that – their basic self-esteem or self-concept. ut often, I think, it’s quite a relief when I say to them: “But let’s look at your context. What is the rate of unemployment in South Africa? Let’s look at your demographic amongst young people. For instance, it’s over 50% alone. Let’s look at globally, what’s happening. It’s not only you that’s unemployed.” So I think I found it very useful not to locate it again only in the individual, but rather for them to understand global capitalism even as the context for their unemployment. And they find that helpful.
Jenna Solomon 2:50
And I wonder, how does psychology as a discipline make room for this connection between a socio-economic issue and an individual’s mental health.
Dr Shahieda Jansen 3:02
You know, when I think of socio-economic issues, I always think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. So it takes me right to the bottom rung. Then I think, “okay, if you are not eating, if you do not have something to drink, if you’re not sleeping, you don’t have shelter, then that in itself becomes a mental health issue”. So my understanding, then of the role, or the place of socio-economics in mental health is that a socio-economic issue is a mental health issue. It’s not a separate issue.
Beulah Marks 3:41
Another way that I like looking at it is in terms of a systemic approach, together with Maslow’s needs. So, in other words, an individual who doesn’t have food or a place to sleep won’t be able to function or won’t be able to express themselves fully. So I see it as a bi-directional relationship. The person’s mental health is not only within the person, not located there, but it’s that interaction between the person and the environment. So we, again, like Shahieda said, I don’t see that we can separate it from the socio-economic context. And also because I understand the individual to be not only the physical – what we see – or the mental – what we can infer – but also spiritual, emotional beings. So physical beings, so, yeah, they’re very interrelated, and can obviously have an adverse effect. You’ve
Jenna Solomon 4:33
now heard it from the experts. Feeling down or overwhelmed because of a big socio-economic issue – it’s not something to be ashamed about. This is unfortunately, a normal reality in a developing country, and you’re certainly not alone. In the show notes, you’ll find details of support groups for coping with these problems. There’s also a depiction of Maslow’s hierarchy, which Beulah and Shahieda referred to to get support with a mental health condition. You can. contact the South African Depression and Anxiety Group’s, counseling hotline on 0 800-567 567.
That’s it from Ease in Mzansi. , As we like to say here in South Africa, “sterkte en hou vas, “hamba kahle “. Chat again next time.