I don't really think there is a stigma concerning 'mental health' - people are talking about mental illness and mental health all the time. In my line of work at least, there are excellent supports for people with different kinds of temporary and lifelong challenges falling under the umbrella of ‘mental illness’.
However I don't think we are speaking truthfully about the deeper causes of mental un-wellness. I still see the issue of depression and suicide framed too much as an individual issue when we need to discuss it in terms of our society's failure to meet BASIC HUMAN NEEDS.
Read MoreOk. I’ve recently published a paper with my mentor and colleagues about the ‘extreme female brain’ hypothesis of mental illness. Basically, the paper makes the case that sex differences in evolutionary pressures predispose females and males toward different prevalence rates and manifestations of mental illness. For example, more males than females are diagnosed with autism and more females than males are diagnosed with depression.
There are a few things to be clear on first:
Even though the title of the hypothesis has the word ‘brain’ in it, the study does not involve direct studies of brains. We extended this hypothesis from a large body of work done by Simon Baron-Cohen, who has made a strong case for autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) as an extreme manifestation of male-typical psychology (1).
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