COLUMN: Mental health barriers reveal sexism

On Monday, researchers at New York University’s Langone Medical Center released an analysis of the reach of mental illness and the accessibility of care and resources, and their findings were deeply unsettling. According to data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected from 2006 to 2014, 3.4 percent of the U.S. population — more than 8.3 million adult Americans — suffer from serious psychological distress, or SPD. The latest research prior to this estimated that the number of Americans affected by SPD was less than 3 percent.

Alongside declining rates of access to mental health services, the spread of SPD is alarming. The same researchers found 9.5 percent of American adults surveyed in 2014 did not have access to psychiatrists and counselors in their health insurance, up from just 9 percent in 2006. And roughly 10 percent of Americans in 2014 could not afford psychiatric medications for their conditions, up from 8.7 percent in 2006.

The struggle to access mental health care as a result of socioeconomic status and limited insurance plans is a substantial problem. But unsettlingly enough, these are not the only obstacles to accessing care: Gender-based stigma not only dramatically skews self-reporting rates concerning depression and mental health, but also serves as a deadly deterrent for men who struggle with mental health but perceive getting help as a mark of weakness and femininity.

The gendered aspects of mental health are deeply nuanced, but it is impossible to fully understand the issue of mental health without awareness of  the experiences of different identity groups. Fifteen percent of people will develop depression over the course of their lifetimes, but twice as many women are diagnosed with depression as men. And from 2000 to 2011, the rate of suicides among adult Americans increased from 10.4 to 12.3 per 100,000 people. As Bloomberg noted in a 2014 report, there is a substantial gap in suicide rates between men and women — men are four times more likely to take their own lives.

Men are less likely to be diagnosed with depression, in part because they are less likely to self-report symptoms, but also because, as Bloomberg points out, men affected by depression may not demonstrate symptoms stereotypically associated with the condition. In either case, they are far less likely to seek and receive help.

From a political standpoint, lawmakers talk in endless circles about what our tax dollars should and shouldn’t be paying for, while innumerable Americans who cannot afford help are forced to suffer through undignified living standards as a result of untreated mental illness.

And from a cultural standpoint, in a society in which masculinity is popularly portrayed as emotional detachment and control over one’s feelings, adherence to traditional notions of masculinity is absolutely requisite to being accepted and respected as a man. This social rigidity serves as yet another barrier to getting help, and as rates of suicide among men suggest, it carries grave potential consequences.

By no means does this trend suggest that women have it easier. It is impossible to know for certain whether more women are reporting symptoms simply because emotion is already associated with femininity, or whether women truly do suffer from depression at higher rates than men do.

There certainly exists a relationship between identifying as part of a marginalized group and experiencing depression. Four percent of African Americans, who are more likely to face discrimination and be born into communities with fewer resources, experience depression, according to 2014 data from the CDC, compared with 3.1 percent of white Americans. A 2012 survey revealed 6 percent of gay men had attempted suicide, whereas less than 1 percent of heterosexual men had. And across the board, women are more likely to experience sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination in the workplace and other environments and difficulty accessing basic healthcare as a result of the politicization and policing of their bodies, among other gender-based struggles.

Still, the issue also remains that the reason there is less shame and stigma attached to women reporting depression and seeking help is as problematic as the reason men are less likely to be diagnosed with and treated for depression. Patriarchal society casts women as the gentler sex, the weak link. But this association of emotions with weakness, and of weakness with femininity, helps no one.

Access to resources and care for depression and SPD — which are, unsettlingly enough, on the rise — is increasingly being challenged by economic obstacles, but cultural stereotypes have always posed an additional barrier. Without access to healthcare for mental illness, rates of affected individuals may only continue to rise. And as skewed rates of depression diagnoses and suicide among the sexes suggest, gender roles, typically brushed off as a mere social issue, can have life-or-death consequences.

Kylie Cheung is a freshman majoring in journalism and political science. She is also the editorial director of the Daily Trojan. Her column,“You do Uterus,” runs every Thursday.