Capitalism is damaging your mental health. This is how to cope.

You may not know it, but living under capitalism is damaging your mental health. The overwhelming feeling of competition, the scarcity mindset, the loneliness and low self worth can all be tied back to living in a capitalist society. In this video I want to help you understand that therapy, self help and self improvement may not be able to improve your mood or peace of mind due to the constant pressure of capitalism. At the end of the video I’ll go over a few things you can start doing in order to cope with the negative mental and emotional affects you may be feeling.

Okay so here’s thing with capitalism. Whether you like it or not, it creates a ton of fear and insecurity. And it’s only getting worse. Wages haven’t gone up in the last 40 years and anyone who has a good job is likely putting in a ton of hours just to keep it and get by. And I dunno where you live but rents are getting higher and more outta control where I am. The houseless population is growing at an alarming rate. It’s really sad.

And while the internet and social media appear to keep us more connected than ever, it’s really getting in the way from more authentically connecting with people. Not only that, but big corporations fueled by huge marketing departments push out content that degrades and destroys our body image in order to sell us products that we’re told we need in order to feel better. They’re doing so much more harm than good and draining our bank accounts at the same time.

The capitalist world we live in is shaped by the image of the market. And the only way you’re going to succeed in this world is on your own. And if you can’t pull yourself up by your bootstraps, on what we’re told is an even playing field, (it’s not)…… then you’re likely to experience unemployment, which we know leads to much higher chances of suffering from depression.

In a capitalist society your self worth is based on your productivity. If you’re not producing you’re sent the message that you’re worthless because you’re not contributing to society. And you should feel pretty bad about that. And it’s not okay to blame the system or anyone else for your problems. Obviously. You’re a failure because you’re lazy, unmotivated, didn’t study hard enough and you’re a drain on the system. You’re dead weight. You depend on government handouts and you should be ashamed of that.

Oh and don’t even get me started on how capitalism has influenced our “personal brands.” The fact that I’m even using the words “personal brand” is pretty disgusting. The way we curate all our social media feeds to appear valuable to our friends and family is gross. We treat ourselves as a corporation just like a good little capitalist should. And our social media image is so divorced from who we are authentically are. The mental gymnastics that we have to perform in order to portray a flawless image of ourselves on social media that we badly want the world to see as we try desperately to hide our imperfections is wreaking havoc on our psyche’s.

Capitalism makes us compete with each other for jobs that don’t give us meaning or make us fulfilled. Our job success is measured based solely on how much money we make for the company. We can be replaced by someone else at any moment that knows how to do our job faster and smarter. And our jobs likely don’t encourage community or creativity which are our more natural states. Work should feel satisfying, not draining.

So okay, you might be like, fine, living in capitalism might be pretty bad for my mental health. But there must be something I can do about it. Well as a matter of fact there is! Well….capitalism would like you to think there is.

If capitalism is making you feel hopeless, insecure, alienated, depressed and anxious all you have to do is work on your self improvement and improve your self care. But here’s the thing all your self help gurus seem to leave out. Self care and improvement are individualistic approaches to a problem that could be cured by community and the dismantling of capitalism. It’s the system that needs to change not you! You’re having a very normal reaction to a very unhealthy system.

Let me explain real quick. Self improvement culture focuses on developing physical, mental and emotional strength so that you can toughen up and be able to handle the cruel world. The message being sent is that you should be able to count on yourself and not have to ask for help from anyone else. You’re taught to work harder and more efficiently. You’re told the world isn’t going to change, you can’t control anything outside of yourself, so you’re going to have to accept the system you live in and instead take control of the only thing you can, which is how you think, feel and behave.

It does nothing to really address the underlying problem. It just tries to make you the best little capitalist there is.

And then there’s self care. Self improvements softer, and wiser, little sister. Self care involves going to spas, treating yourself, silent meditation retreats, talking to a therapist, drinking plenty of water, living holistically, thinking positively, eating a healthy diet and doing your yoga. If you’re good at pampering yourself, expressing your emotions, creating healthy boundaries and taking your psyche meds then you’ll be able to ward off your depression, anxiety and insecurity. I mean you won’t really be able to do that in the end. But maybe a little? Or maybe for a while? Basically, if you treat yourself well you’ll live well. The problem is that giving your body and mind all the minerals they could ever want is not going to change the world you live in.

Let’s face it, the survival of capitalism relies on all of us buying into the latest self care or self improvement fad and cycling through them until we die. It’s perfect because we never point the finger at the thing causing the anxiety and instead blame ourselves for not being more evolved.

Okay so besides starting a revolution, which is something we’ll eventually need to do. What are a few things you can do to cope.

Well, while you may not be able to physically escape capitalism, you can try to escape it’s ideology. While you may have to continue being a worker and consumer, you don’t have to be blinded by the capitalist mindset that operates to serve the powerful and convinces you to buy all the stuff. You can deliberately make the choice to focus on hobbies and friends instead of spending time on social media or on your phone. And while you might not be able to ignore all the hyper specific ads that are convincing you to buy their product so that you’re seen as valuable you can take a more critical eye to how clever their messaging is and understand that you’re of value just because you exist.

Remember, the goal of capitalism is for everyone to live in their own solitary bubble and not count on people. Why count on people when you can buy things to meet your needs!? And make sure you protect the little you have so that you can live another day or plan for retirement! Instead of blindly adopting this narrative think about what you can realistically do in order to join with your community in a more authentic way. Challenge the notion that you’re weak and too needy if you count on the people around you. We need a strong community that lifts us up and makes us feel safe to depend on.

And trust me, I know how much fun it is to participate in consumerism. I have a hard time not doing that myself. But really ask yourself what you’re needing. Are you buying things because you’re trying to reach a certain status so that you can be respected by people? That’s the capitalism narrative. Do you want to believe that your self worth is tied to your productivity and what you can show for it? Or do you just want to genuinely connect with people around you and work on hobbies or projects that are truly interesting to you?

If you want me to talk more about capitalism and the damaging mental health effects it has on us leave me a comment. If you enjoy my content a free way to support my channel is to like this video. Also, join me on TikTok and instagram to get daily tips from me. If you’re looking for a counselor like me check out TherapyDen.com to easily find a therapist near you!