Mental and physical health are looked at very differently in western societies. Mental health is difficult because asking for it means you’re unstable. Physical health is much easier for the ideal person, because for some reason your body is more important than your mind. Insurance also plays a key role in healthcare. The difference between these two types of healing and asking for help is astounding. Insurance can make asking for help harder and more confusing.

Getting help with mental illness makes people think you’re unstable because of the stigma behind it. Going to a therapist is like walking into a mental hospital in some areas. Western ideals of medicine think of hard sciences as the only legitimate types of science, which is unfortunate because it leaves out more than half of the human experience. The mind-body split shows heavily when speaking about mental health. People think that when your body is healthy your mind must be as well, but that is untrue and someone’s mental health can affect their physical health greatly.

For example, my coworker told me that he was “crazy too,” when I told him I had a psychiatrist appointment that day. This sounds like a joke, but when you look at it, he’s saying that we have to be mentally unstable to see a professional about it. When your body is ailing, do people tell you that you’re crazy to go see a medical doctor? Then why is mental health any different?

Physical health has its own challenges, but can be much easier with ideal people. When you mix other identities and factors into the person in question, physical health help can become much harder to attain and maintain. For example, a cis white man can get through a doctor’s appointment very easily, yet a trans woman has to answer many more questions and the doctor can create much more commotion because someone doesn’t fit the “proper type” of person.

Health is such an important part of living, yet many people that need mental help cannot find it, and those who are not binary can get discriminated against for existing. The key piece to healthcare in America is private insurance. Insurance is a leech on resources and does NOT help people get better healthcare. Insurance itself is EVIL!

The fact that we have to pay for a life-saving service out of pocket because someone we pay to pay our bills doesn’t cover a particular surgery or time in a rehabilitation center is absolutely atrocious.

This conversation can be linked to so many things, whether it’s free healthcare, racial justice, LGBT rights, or even basic human needs/rights. These are just a few of the things that physical and mental health can lead to, especially when combined with insurance. People have a right to take care of their bodies and thrive instead of survive, but insurance, mental, and physical health are all factors in someone’s quality of life.