I would like to thank ‘The Goan' for inviting me to comment further on the very important topic of mental wellbeing, in response to an article, ‘Are people in UK, Australia, Ireland among the most miserable in world?’, which was published in ‘The Global Goenkar’ section of The Goan newspaper on March 23, 2024. See: https://tinyurl.com/erxv43n5 or https://epaper.thegoan.net/c/74792641
In the article, some Goans had been invited to react to the latest findings by the research group Sapien Labs on mental wellbeing across the world, and my comments were also published.
Not being an expert in this field, it allowed me to delve into a subject that has been discussed by experts for a long time of which I knew very little about.
A report in The Global Goenkar on March 23, 2024
Rather than contradicting anyone's opinions, I found it very useful to learn what other Goans from the UK, Australia, and Goa thought about the country-based ranking arrived at by Sapien Labs. So, let's first refer to the report.
THE SAPIEN LABS REPORT
The 4th Annual report on the 'Mental State of the World' by Sapien Labs is available online (https://sapienlabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/4th-Annual-Mental-State-of-the-World-Report.pdf).
This report makes interesting reading; not only for those who are in the science of mental health but also for anybody who has a deep or passing interest on where society is headed and how the quality of life, across the world, could pan out over the coming years.
Whether one agrees with the findings or not, the results say a lot about the state of a nation and the wellbeing of her citizens.
In explaining the rankings across different countries, one of Sapien Labs conclusions was that the average mental wellbeing scores of the Internet-enabled populations of countries were strongly and significantly negatively correlated with economic metrics such as per capita GDP. The team narrowed this down to 3 main factors:
1. Age at which a child gets their first smartphone
2. Consumption of ultra-processed foods
3. Diminished family bonds
As a point to note, neither I nor my fellow commentators specifically called out the first two points in our responses in the article in ‘The Global Goenkar’.
EXTENDING THE CONVERSATION
Keen to understand what others might think, I took the liberty to share the 'Global Goenkar' article with my family and friends on various WhatsApp groups. Like many other WhatsApp groups, these groups have a fairly good representation of individuals from all over the world. Their views shared below were based on a light touch understanding of the results of the Sapien Labs report.
The feedback from my discussions with my WhatsApp group members partly touched upon the support from family and friends, which could be loosely linked to the third factor (diminished family bonds).
When conducting a survey, the emotions and situations faced by an individual at that particular point of time could result in a slightly skewed analysis. For instance, this is the fourth year such a study has been carried out. Yet, the rankings of countries have not moved up or down significantly over the years despite the pandemic and lockdowns. It could indicate that everybody was feeling low, and the effect was uniform across the whole world. I'll leave it to the experts to work out the reasons.
I thank all those who have provided me with feedback and granted me permission to share their views on the request of anonymity. I do hope it keeps the conversation live and healthy.
COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK
GP from Dover-UK personally felt he was quite happy and was not really bothered since there were happy, sad, greedy, and money driven people all over the world.
GP subsequently posted a YouTube link on a discussion on how ‘therapy culture’ creates victims, wherein the interviewer and interviewee question whether the boom in therapy for younger people was harming, and not helping the next generation in the USA. I found this video very interesting and was surprised to learn that a similar culture was prevalent in the UK as that of in the USA.
Reacting to The Global Goenkar article, LC from Goa & Sweden applauded the reasoning by Maria Fernandes, who cited materialistic possessions and hunger for numerous needs that contributed to decreasing mental wellbeing. LC also agreed with Frankey Fernandes, who felt people look past the positives in life and focus on the negatives.
LC questioned my comment that I was not surprised at the state of mental illness in the UK since the Sapien Labs report ranked UK as the second worst country for mental wellbeing on the MHQ scale. LC felt people do not choose to be mentally ill and that it would never get fashionable.
JG from New York, USA, was surprised that India fared better than the UK, Ireland, and Australia despite not having any welfare system. JG felt that if it related to joblessness, then India should have been at the top of the unhappiness table as Indian unemployment rate was running at 40%.
Looking at it from another angle, JG felt that in India, an unemployed person could fall back on family and friends for support, unlike those from other countries. JG was curious to understand if other UK domestic factors could have contributed to the low ranking of the UK.
JG thought that the video on therapy culture in the US was interesting and felt that social media was the root cause of mental illness in the USA. This is in line with the recent declaration made by the mayor of New York City, who said that 'social media was a public health hazard'.
DF from Reading-UK felt that we had gone from bad to worse in the UK. After the pandemic, people kept their distance and still do. Mentally, this has affected a lot of conditions; and not for the better. Those days when neighbours used to help one another are now in the decline. To cap it all, the UK has become a very selfish nation.
JP from Cortalim-Goa refrained from being judgemental as he heard various versions of wellbeing and distress of people in England, Africa, and Australia. JP's main concerns lay in individual rather than general tales. JP found Bella's reasoning probably most applicable, though.
JP travelled to Myanmar in 1994 to attend a session held by a group of American Buddhists who were studying the happiness index in relation to lifestyle. It was pointed out that human beings taken out of their natural habitat and placed in built-up areas without nature inadvertently and inconspicuously start developing stress symptoms. A US study revealed that places like New York have more mental illness cases than say like Vermont.
JP also felt that the weather plays an important role, especially if one is not originally of the region and requiring acclimatisation where depression caused by the lack of sunlight was bound to set in.
[The writer is an active member of the local Conservative Party, who takes a keen interest in local and national affairs and socio-economic matters]
