Kelevra29 t1_j7uwv77 wrote on February 9, 2023 at 4:15 PM

Reply to comment by LiamTheHuman in People from the poorest backgrounds are far more likely to develop a mental disorder later in life than those from wealthier beginnings. More than half of people with a low educational attainment at age 30 will have a diagnosis of a mental disorder 22 years later by Wagamaga

In some cases, absolutely. There may be lower incidence of isolated depression or anxiety, but a lot of mental illnesses are hereditary rather than strictly environmental.

I'm autistic, and i had no idea until i was 26. When i was a kid, my executive dysfunction wasn't a problem because i had my family to rely on. I never had to worry about money because of scholarships and grants for school, so my dysfunction only came out as procrastination in school. Now that I'm an adult and trying to take care of myself, it's coming out in the inability to keep my apartment in shape or feed myself. All of my energy goes into my job and there's very little left over for basic life tasks. If i had money, i may still not know because i wouldn't have to worry about cooking or cleaning or anything beyond work as it is. I could pay someone to make phone calls and appointments for me. Most of my dysfunction wouldn't be apparent if i had someone else helping me.

So i definitely think certain symptoms or disorders can go unnoticed in wealthy people even though they do still experience the disorder itself.

Kelevra29 t1_j7qwtxi wrote on February 8, 2023 at 7:51 PM

Reply to comment by Bama_Peach in People from the poorest backgrounds are far more likely to develop a mental disorder later in life than those from wealthier beginnings. More than half of people with a low educational attainment at age 30 will have a diagnosis of a mental disorder 22 years later by Wagamaga

Also mental health disorders usually only get diagnosed if they have significant impairment on daily life. For poor people, that means their mental health is interfering with work and their ability to take care of themselves. A lot of people from wealthy families don't have to worry as much about the executive function side of things because they can afford to have other people do those things for them, so they may not seek treatment.

For example, I have trouble keeping my house clean because of my mental health. Someone with money can hire a cleaner. I can't. So i need to seek alternative measures to be able to do the thing that a wealthy person can just pay for and not worry about.

For a wealthy person, they have to have the introspection to say "i don't feel good, this doesn't feel right" in order to want to seek treatment. Poor people have more extrinsic measures of their mental health before they even get to the introspection stage.