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Has class status affected your family's mental health and or access to services? How?
The assumption that emotional distress is a medical ("mental health") condition is itself class-based. Middle class professionals don't ever question this, but others do. The medical model is often hurtful. There are others.
I've always had health insurance and thus was able to get therapy when I needed it most.
Ability to pay directly for mental health services provides privacy because insurance does not need to be involved, and therapy isn't reported. This mattered to me. My working class background didn't provide me with the savvy to know how the system worked. Not knowing proved to be a significant handicap. Somehow, it's an echo of the rich get know how, and the poor get now what? Finding out how the medical system works is much harder if you are in working class, and don't have friends in the professional fields. This is true for both physical and mental health. I find myself explaining to certain relatives how the medical system works, because they have no other access to that information, because they are still working class. They try just as hard, but get much less for their efforts to make the system work for them and for their families. Laws, like the recent one in MA requiring health insurers to notify patients formally denied services about the state appeal process, help to level the playing field because the information is delivered to everyone. And the application fee is kept low, with the insurance company required to cover all but $25 of the appeal cost. This appeal process empowers all patients.
Class was the cause of many of the problems in my family of origen and the families I have been a part of in my adult life. My parents were second generation Slavic immigrants. My mother's family was the most impoverished. Her father was a socialist and worked fo some non mainline jobs. They paid poorly. When tensions were high, he beat my grandfather. My mother's teeth were badly rotted, when she finely went to a dentist she lost many. Both worked in factories. When a recession happened and my dad was laid off the arguing would begin. At Christmas, my father would sit in a chair and sulk. I grew to punish myself when I spent money and reward myself when I spent nothing. Buying things on credit was unheard of. The women in three generations suffered from severe depression. When my grandmother was in her 70's and lived with us, she mumbled and talked to herself. My mother had insomnia and took too many valiums when I was a child. My sister has been hospitalized for depression many times. She can not function well in this competitive society at all. I have suffered from depression from my childhood. I really hated every part of myself. I only had relief when I started taking Paxil. My first marriage ended in ruins. One of our main arguments centered on money. He thought nothing of credit as his family was middleclass; it terrifed me and I struck out. My class problems ended when I married my second husband who is a doctor. Now I feel guilty about his income, but I can spend the money without guilt.
Read earlier survey responses:
February 2007: How do you feel your class situation has impacted your experience in or with sports?
December 2006: What responsibility do different economic classes bear for reducing their contributions to global warming pollution? Should wealthy people assume more of the cost of fixing the problem?
November 2006: For those who have served (or who are currently serving) in the military: Have you encountered classist attitudes about your choice to serve? For everyone: Do you see a class divide in terms of who serves in the military? What does this mean for the military and the country?
October 2006: How is television perpetuating stereotypes or classist portrayals? What are some examples of characters, storylines, or news stories that you have found particularly troubling?
September 2006: Higher Education can be a class marker, the access channel to "upward" mobility,or class liberator. What are the connections with class and higher education for you?
August 2006: How does class affect how you spend your non-working hours and impact your vacation options?
June 2006: What are the ways that you see class or classism play out in your spiritual community or congregation of faith?
May 2006: When did you first become aware of your class or class differences? How old were you?
February 2006: How do class differences impact your relationships?
January 2006: What privileges should we all have?
Are there any privileges none of us should have?
December 2005 Survey Question:
How do class issues come up for you during the end-of-year "consumer" holidays?
November 2005 Survey Question: Please tell us about your experiences of class, class differences, and classism in your education/school.
October 2005: Tell us about a time you've either been an ally to someone or had someone be an ally to you around issues of class.
September 2005: What are the ways you see the race and class divisions exposed by Katrina?
August 2005: What class did you grow up in? What was good or bad about your class experience growing up?
July 2005: What are your strongest memories connecting race and class?
June 2005: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal each ran their own series on class. What is your response to the recent press on class?
May 2005: The good, the bad, and the ugly of cross-class relating
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