Capitalism

Capitalism and Mental Health: How the Market Makes Us Sick

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• published: 22 Mar 2016
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Far from being a far-fetched pipe dream that human beings could never live under, pockets of anarchistic self-activity are what keep us sane in a profoundly insane world. This video mainly deals with how the capitalist system exerts massive amounts of pressure on individuals and gives the average person a million different things to worry about. I mainly talk about anxiety and depression here, although I fully acknowledge that there's so much more to cover than just that, both in terms of mental illness and in terms of societal analysis. Also I should briefly add that I don't think mental illness would simply disappear in an anarchist society; I think to some extent it is a fundamental part of being human. But I do think many of the contributing factors, like social isolation and financial stress, would be significantly reduced in an anarchist society. Chronic stress at work linked to high blood pressure: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/014067369193068K Anxiety Disorders Association of America 2006 survey: http://www.adaa.org/workplace-stress-anxiety-disorders-survey 700,000 workers in the UK on zero-hour contracts: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/zero-hours-contracts-a-reality-for-almost-700000-uk-workers-ons-figures-show-10069528.html Fearing the brown envelope: Sickness benefits and welfare reform http://www.newstatesman.com/economics-blog/2012/11/fearing-brown-envelope-sickness-benefits-and-welfare-reform Work Capability Assessments linked with mental health problems: http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2015/10/26/jech-2015-206209.full Gallup employee engagement survey: http://www.gallup.com/poll/165269/worldwide-employees-engaged-work.aspx Rates of mental disorder among the homeless population: http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/Mental%20health%20literature%20review.pdf Review of evidence concerning security of tenure, maintenance, community etc: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nancy_Wells2/publication/227692027_Housing_and_Mental_Health_A_Review_of_the_Evidence_and_a_Methodological_and_Conceptual_Critique/links/53e180f40cf2235f352bcddf.pdf 19 million vacant homes in America: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/26/number-of-vacant-homes-in_n_552274.html Information on gentrification: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyplaces/healthtopics/gentrification.htm Higher rates of mental illness and substance dependence among economically disenfranchised groups: http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/aptrcpsych/10/3/216.full.pdf Heroin use in Muirhouse and the AIDS epidemic: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2099412/ Mental illness in Europe: http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/mental-health/data-and-statistics How self-directed activities improve well-being: http://www.examiner.com/article/how-hobbies-improve-mental-health-part-i Hobbies for stress relief: http://stress.about.com/od/funandgames/tp/hobby.htm