(Written by Martha S.)
Hey guys! You may have noticed that there is no episode today! That is my fault and I apologize – the day we were going to record I was very, very sick and had no voice to do so, so our actual episode 11 will go up next Wednesday, keeping to our normal schedule of content every other week. I apologize for false promises and for the delay, it was not my intention to put off our discussion on grief for so long, but life happens sometimes!
In the meantime, I want to address something related to Episode 10 (wherein we discussed mental health in pop culture) that I find pretty amazing: recently, on the second episode of the current season of The Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay (the Bachelorette herself) and one of her suitors (namely, Peter Kraus, 31-year-old small business owner) had an open, honest, and simple discussion about how they had both been to relationship therapists and had really benefited from the experience.
I don’t care if you watch The Bachelor properties – in fact, you probably shouldn’t, considering all the shit that franchise perpetuates. I do, though, and so do millions of other people, and despite how you personally may feel about it, it is a media and cultural juggernaut. Having two adult, seemingly normal, very attractive people not only admit to having needed mental health care but benefited from it on a tv show that is such a mainstay in our pop cultural landscape is a huge step in normalizing mental healthcare.
As the Huffington Post points out (in this article here, by Emma Gray):
“In an ideal world, this wouldn’t even be notable. After all, mental health struggles are incredibly common in this country. Anxiety disorders alone impact 40 million adults in the U.S. ― that’s about 18 percent of the population. However, only about one-third of those people get treatment. This gap exists for a few reasons: a lack of comprehensive coverage for quality mental health care, the persistent idea that mental health isn’t “real” health, and the stigma that still follows admitting that you might need mental health care in the first place.”
So yes, more of this please. More real discussions about how normal people, every day, benefit from mental health care.
Did You Do Your Homework? 