ACT leader David Seymour’s ‘harden up’ line stuns Wellington students
A Wellington audience was stunned to hear ACT Leader David Seymour say people suffering from anxiety and depression should “harden up”.Seymour says the comments were taken out of context though stands by his belief that some people with mental health issues do not need medication.
Victoria University law student Sophie Wynn, who has personally suffered from anxiety and depression, was at the politicians’ debate at Victoria University’s Weir House on Monday night when Seymour made the comment.
Groan. It seems the ACT Leader is suggesting people with mental illness choose to have mental illness, which is the way ACT see poverty so no real surprises here huh? It’s the free market of choice isn’t it, you ‘choose’ to be depressed the same way to ‘choose’ to be poor. It’s a weird hyper individualism that highlights that while Seymour has been the darling of the media over his allowing booze companies to keep pubs open for 72 hours straight and his support for Red Peak (notice how libertarians always have a thing for design and architecture, I blame Ayn Rand), he’s a delusional acolyte of the free market with all the bedside manner of a brain hungry zombie.
As NZUSA points out, student depression and mental health is an issue of pressing and growing concern…
…desperate need met with ugly belief. Sums up the ACT Party perfectly.
Meanwhile Corbyn has a shadow minister for mental health… says it all.
David Seymour appears to simply be basing his judgment on the same kind of supposedly “robust” evidence that the government he supports has been using to justify the draconian welfare reforms of the last years. They are planning to bring in “fit notes” that are now used in the UK, to replace the formerly used “sick notes”. They believe in the “health benefits” of work, it is even considered that work is “therapeutic”, and best “medicine” against even mental illness. Changing the tune creates “miracles” is the message, more or less.
One senior UK advisor and supporter of these approaches, who believes in a robust application of the “bio psycho social model” approach, is a Prof. Mansel Aylward. He advised MSD, Paula Bennett’s ‘Health and Disability Panel’ and his “findings” have even been embraced by the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AFOEM):
http://members.racp.edu.au/page/racp-faculties/australasian-faculty-of-occupational-and-environmental-medicine/realising-the-health-benefits-of-work/may-2010-video-presentation-professor-sir-mansel-aylward/
Mr Aylward has made comments like much illness, especially mental health conditions, is merely “illness belief”! David Seymour will most likely agree with that also.
Here is a publication by a loyal colleague of Mr Aylward, from Cardiff University, where the “Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research’ is based, headed by Mr Aylward, who was previously also Chief Medical Officer of the DWP in the UK:
‘Malingering and illness deception’:
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Malingering_and_Illness_Deception.pdf
Quote from that book under ‘Acknowledgments’:
“The meeting which formed the basis for this book would not have been possible had it not been for the enthusiastic support of Professor Mansel Aylward and funding from the Department for Work and Pensions.”
Yet, despite of all the above “evidence”, MSD seem damned reluctant to present the public the true figures for people with mental health conditions, who they have so far tried to get into lasting employment:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mhes-spes-msd-withholds-o-i-a-info-that-may-prove-trials-a-failure-post-nzsjb-final-14-04-2015.pdf
Search ‘nzsocialjusticeblog2013’ and read more about what really goes on in “welfare policy” in Aotearoa NZ.
We are sold a lot of half truths and untruths, I fear, but as few bother reading and analysing the reports so often referred to, most have no idea that much is just total make belief, and little else, this “evidence”.
In the more extreme form the ideology now followed was used in the 1930s in Germany, under the slogan ‘Arbeit macht frei’.
Also worth a read:
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15188-medical-and-work-capability-assessments-based-on-the-bps-model-aimed-at-disentiteling-affected-from-welfare-benefits-and-acc-compo/
More on Aylward, and how “popular” he is with disabled and their advocates in Wales and the rest of the UK:
http://samedifference1.com/2015/09/08/disabled-people-protest-sir-mansel-aylward-and-socialist-health-association/
I suspect that David Seymour read his books and believes the bizarre, selective conclusions drawn from Aylward’s “research”.
So I saw and heard it today, during Question Time, Carmel Sepuloni is finally onto it, and digging into the Minister for Social Development (today the squirming Associate Minister):
http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/39670
They have been hiding the facts and details, that trials for Mental Health Employment Services are failing to deliver!
Knowing the Black Dog as well as I do, had I been there and heard that twaddle, I’d be well locked away by now !!
Surprised Sophie Wynn made the distance !!
This guy is starting to get a bit of kudos from our media and I think he is no novice at the art of illusion, a bit like Key. For any other party not National you would have to be very wary to trust him.
In fact Andrea Vance waxed lyrical about the way he duped the Green Party in the recent law change rush to open pubs to accomodate “the rugby” . Sadly as the MSM seem to do, they seem to adore and respect politicians who are about as trustworthy as a shithouse rat.
Seymour is the latest of a long line of Politicians who need to find another way to make a living.
Perhaps being a comedian would suit him better, but doubt he would find any one willing to pay to listen to him.
Sorry to be personal but Seymoure looks so much like one of the aliens from Dr Who,the one that looks wooden ACTS wooden and from a different planet.
Seymoure will say anything to get publicity, most of it rubbish and shows what his level of understanding of peoples problems are.
Couldn’t agree more he is still just a boy in a man’s pair of underpants. And remember he is still just a pawn for Key
Well… I thought less than 1% summed up ACT Martyn 🙂
“…with all the bedside manner of a brain hungry zombie”
Love it!
WishI known earlier that was all It took, Could have saved myself years of taking medication, therapy and stays in mental health units. Least I now know that I can throw away the medication and just “harden up”. Self righteous, privaleged up their own arse nonces like Seymour really need to give themselves an upper cut. If anyone needs to harden up and stand on his own feet it is that prized plonker.
Where was that photo of him with the big ‘ H ‘ on his forehead gone?
You know the one…Arnold Judas Rimmer aka ‘Smeghead ‘ on the Red Dwarf spaceship…
That’s who he is…that guy – Smeghead.
The Daily Blog should never , EVER display a photo of the buffoon without putting a capital ‘ H ‘ on the fools head.
Smeghead the hologram – and about as believable as well.
Except Rimmer was rather funny, whereas Seymour (Seymour Skinner?) is definitely NOT!
Neoliberalism really is a repulsive ideology.
@ WK – I thought a big L on the forehead would be more appropriate.
The obvious questions to ask characters like David Seymour is; “So what are your medical qualifications; when did you graduate; and how long have you specialised in psychiatry”?
Seymour’s quackery may fit well with the Church of Scientology (evidently mental illness is not real and is due to negative energies caused by aliens who came to Earth millions of years ago – these days Grey aliens just settle for a bit of anal probing) but in Reality Land, where the rest of us live, work, and pay the bills, his views show why ACT will forever languish under 1%.
Medical qualifications? Seymour is an expert on so many things, he probably knows everything. The scary thing is that when he goes the same way as his Act predecessors he will know even more! Then he’ll be just like Rodney Hide!
Actually against Seymour’s utterances, the Church of Scientology seems almost plausible… 🙂
The irony here is that someone who looks like a boy tells those without choice, to “man up”.
Hey Martyn,
Have a look at his eyes his right eye is pointing outwards right from his left so he may have a damaged brain himself perhaps and the reason why he is not sympathetic to mental illness?
Has anyone checked to see if he has been involved in a car crash or injury to his head at some time as he looks a bit deranged.
Anyway we all know the drugs they give a patient makes them worse don’t we?
Ritalin and Prozac for ADHD & depression respectively are just two examples.
http://www.rt.com/usa/prescription-florida-children-drug/
He is a sick puppy.
Don’t worry about those conditions, knocking on 11,000 doors does that to one.
He definitely did not express himself very well, but he has a point. We medicate to easily at present, especially with children.
Maybe we fucking need to medicate to deal with the life affirming messages of the neo-liberals?
Basically the way the far-right view things, anyone whether they are disabled, mentally ill or not, that doesn’t contribute to the GDP is a ‘parasite’ that doesn’t deserve to exist. Though they would never admit to it, Act are probably big fans of eugenics, so would rejoice if someone they view as a ‘parasite’ ceases to exist.
The problem is depression is caused by chemical imbalances in the body and affects people across all demographics and socio-economic levels so the guy is talking through a hole in his head.
He obviously needs to do some study and homework on the causes of depression.
I have got depression seeing what people like Roger Douglas and John Key have done to this country with their social engineering and redistribution of wealth into the hands of the chosen few.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a closet scientologist… or at least a reader of their “self improvement” books.
That thought aside. Having anxiety &/or depression is nothing to be ashamed of, but it is also not something which needs to be worn on one’s sleeve.
This generation of navel gazing youth and twenty-somethings are pretty annoying. Afflictions are being worn as a badge on honour…… These youngsters seem to have an addiction to self-victimization and can’t seem to handle the slightest “elbow” from an idiot. Real life will require these kids to harden up (or is that grow up?), otherwise they won’t function in the big bad world.
It hit me that things may have got out of control when a friend’s children started describing their sad mood, tantrum or *angry moment* as “I’m depressed” or “I’m having major anxiety” (thanks Kardashians).
People need to be told that feeling a strong emotion, or having a sad time, or a bad day is perfectly normal and does not mean you have a mental illness.
Controversial, but I actually believe the term ‘Mental Illness’ needs to be reserved for the most seriously ill. We use it too loosely.
Seymour is typical of those ignorant portions of society who refuse to admit something exists when it has no obvious physical manifestation. If you pass someone in the street it is easy to tell if they have a broken limb, but not easy to tell if they have some kind of mental illness. Do people chose to have cancer, diabetes, etc? Of course they don’t. No-one choses to have depression either.
I hope David Seymour one day experiences the joys of depression and then he can judge if his “choice” was a good one.
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