In Northern Ireland, I feel as though everyone needs to learn to not judge someone without knowing them. I sometimes wonder if people have even ever heard the phrase ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover.’ I walk down the street, or get on a bus, and immediately feel the harsh stares prickle across my skin. I can practically hear the whispers of, “What on earth is she wearing?” or in my friend’s case, “What a faggot!” etc. This sort of mentality is more likely to come from those of the older generation, who have more ‘traditional’ views, but it’s not limited to them. Plenty my own age, those of a supposedly more self-aware generation, dish out nearly as much hate, even if their motivations are slightly different. Of course someone reading this might think I’m exaggerating, or even completely imagining it. However, the more I talk about this topic with my peers, the more certain I am that this is just how it is. Is this bred from years of despising each other based on whether we are Catholic or Protestant? Have my generation then learned this and applied to today’s society? All I know is that it needs to change, drastically.
I recently read an interesting journal (O’Reilly, D., and M. Stevenson. “Mental Health in Northern Ireland: Have “The Troubles” Made It Worse?” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (1979-) 57, no. 7 (2003): 488-92) which looked into another ‘lasting effect’ that could be attributed to the conflict of recent years in N.I.. Mental illness. Northern Ireland has the highest suicide rate of anywhere in the UK. I wonder is this also caused by the exposure to violence, authoritative intimidation, discrimination and alienation, amongst other things, the Troubles caused. The study shows the correlation between those affected by the Troubles (vs those not as affected) and psychological morbidity.
“Morbidity is any physical or psychological state considered to be outside the realm of normal well-being. The term morbidity is often used to describe illness, impairment, or degradation of health, especially when discussing chronic and age-related diseases which can worsen over time.”
The study states, “Recent comparisons of mental health status in Northern Ireland and other countries in the British Isles (using an abridged version of the well validated General Health Questionnaire), show that the level of psychiatric morbidity in Northern Ireland is higher than in either Scotland or England and much higher than those in the Republic of Ireland.” It then goes on to to say although the reasons for this are not known, it’s speculated that the 30 years of conflict (The Troubles) may have contributed to this.
“Those people whose lives were most affected by the Troubles also tended to be Catholic and to have a higher prevalence of ill health.” Catholics seemed to not have had the greatest exposure to violence and poverty, but also have higher scores in the GHQ, meaning more psychological morbidity.
“The greater the extent to which the respondent’s area or life was affected by the Troubles, the greater the likelihood that the respondent had poorer mental health.” Although the results were not sufficient enough to state this as fact, there was evidence that those affected by the Troubles were at higher risk of poor mental health.
“In 1988 a review of the literature relating to the possible effects of terrorist violence had not seemed to have resulted in any obvious increase in psychiatric morbidity as measured by hospital admission levels, suicides and para-suicides levels, and levels of psychoactive drug prescriptions.” It is possible that the levels of psychological morbidity may have increased without the apparent increase in use of the health services.
“Many of the indicators of mental health that are larger based on contact with the caring professions will underestimate the impact of the Troubles if there has been significant denial of under reporting of symptoms and there is some evidence to suggest that most people in Northern Ireland deal with the stress generated by the political violence by denying the existence of the violence around them.” So therefore, basing the effects of the Troubles on mental health by admissions to hospitals etc alone may not mean much, if we as a society tend to bury our heads in the sand and in turn, not get the help we need.
“The understanding of post-traumatic stress neurosis has significantly expanded since the 1988 review and it is now known that it may not be well recognised int he clinical setting and therefore under-diagnosed and under-treated. this seems to be true even when doctors themselves are affected, for a quarter of doctors helping the victims of the Omagh bombing in August 1998 (in which 29 people where killed), exhibited symptoms of chronic post-traumatic stress but only one half of these had sought any help.” If doctors themselves don’t even ask for help, what does that say for the rest of the population?
“Violence, accompanied by greater delinquency, may also result in increased social disorganisation, a growing mistrust and an erosion of social capital in communities that will further predispose people to psychological stress.” This would explain the highly polarised community in N.I..
“Spatially segregated societies like this tend to have a disrupted psychology of place and this can cause a sense of alienation and eventually anger and resentment, leading to confrontational interaction and further violence.” This just reinforces my belief that we must change as a community to avoid another conflict.
“However, the experience of other countries suggests that resolving mental health issues in communities affected by years of violence and displacement will necessitate more than a cessation of violence and may also require an active process of reconciliation to promote social cohesion.” This is why I believe raising awareness and promoting a more positive way of thinking is so important, and is why I am going to use my platform as a communicator to do so. This left-over ill will won’t just go away on its own, we all need to put the effort in.
Although the results state we can’t definitely say whether or not the Troubles attributed to N.I.’s poor mental health standards, there’s definitely enough evidence to reconsolidate my own beliefs, even if they didn’t reach conventional levels of statistical significance. These results would be even more of a definite indicator if an improved political situation also improved the levels of psychiatric morbidity, however considering the current state of N.I. I would suggest it will be a while longer still until we can do such a study.
Link to article:
time to change 