Double standard in mental health

Press, 24 March 1977, Page 12

Double standard in mental health

For years there has been a double standard in mental health, just as the Victorians had in matters of sex, a counselling psychologist. Dr Helen Collier, an American ’who recently held two workshops in Auckland. Dr Collier blames this double standard in pait for the "massive” amounts of drugs and tranquillisers modern urban women consume.

“The double standard that operates says that what is healthy for an adult is different for men and women.

“In a marriage breakup for example, which can be one of the biggest crisis periods of adult life, if a man shows anger and aggression and assertiveness, that’s considered normal and healthy.

“But if a woman shows those reactions, she’s been considered unstable or maladjusted and, traditionally, male doctors have often prescribed tranquillisers or drugs to make her more passive and compliant. “I believe drugs have been used far too freely to mask women’s deepest feelings and hide their anger. Thankfully, through the women’s movement which has spearheaded social change in the United States, this is changing.” Dr Collier said the recent women’s groups and centres for counselling women were increasingly changing to adult centres for both men and women as both sexes sought help and understanding in the turbulence of rapid change. After years when psychologists and psychiatrists concentrated on childhood, adolescence and old age a lot more research was now being done into the crises and changes that affect adult life.

“The years from 21, when you were considered to have ‘made it’ after stormy adolescence, to 60, when you had to face problems of retirement have been largely glossed over,” said Dr Collier.

“But the dramatic changes in adult life that are just as difficult to deal with are now receiving much more attention. And a lot of research is showing that adults are governed more by social events than biological changes. “For example, menopause ,is not so much a biological problem as a time of social stress for a woman because her children are leaving home, maybe she is untrained and unskilled and lacks confidence about finding new roles for herself.

’ “Socially, too, an ageing man is attractive, but an ageing woman is not. It is because of these difficulties that hormonal changes may seem more significant."

Research has also shown that the single woman is “spectacularly” better off as far as psychological distress symptoms are concerned. Married women have worse mental health than either single or married men. Married men have better mental health than either married women or single men.

Dr Collier admired the concept of preventive mental health emphasised by the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand which will be the beneficiary of South Pacific Television’s Telethon on June 25-26.

Modern life, with accelerating change, scattered and highly-mobile families, and changed expectations with each new generation, meant many people were in need of help. "Everything is changing and we are not sure if it is for tlie better or not—that in itself creates stress,” says Dr Collier. “The kind of preventive counselling and support in stress symptoms envisaged by the Mental Health Foundation here is now commonplace in the United States. “Mental health should concern everyone and help should be available for all—not just those who reach the point where they are so sick

they show up with mental health problems." The newest counselling service in the United States was family system therapy where a whole family was looked at, not just the one disruotive member in isolation.

“This is good for women because it takes the blame off the mother's shoulders if something is going wrong, land shares the responsibility throughout the whole family.” Dr Collier, who is married to a New Zealander views herself as "an integrated feminist” with a wide variety of options open to her. She sees similarities between the women’s movement and attitudes to mental health. "Sometimes when I get frustrated because things don’t seem to be moving quickly enough, I console myself that, of course, we are part of an historical process, “You can’t expect anything that is bringing about social change to happen overnight. The changes for women in the United States in the last decade have been phenomenal. And when you think back just a little, so has the change in attitudes to mental health.

“We need to educate people about good mental health and preventive possibilities not just to help ourselves now, but for the sake of future generations."