the mental health consequences of unemployment

The Mental Health Consequences of Unemployment
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Abstract
This paper analyzes the existing relationships between depression and a person’s employment status. The findings show that the two are interrelated and one can lead to the other. Also, the paper looks at how the society views the unemployed and how these perceptions may result in psychological problems. Apart from one possibility of developing depression due to long periods of being unemployed, depression also contributes to unemployment as people are less likely to get employed if they are suffering from deep depressions. Vocational psychology can play a significant role in resolving the mental problems resulting from unemployment as people can learn to find contentment not just to employment but in managing to take care of their needs in other fields as well. Consequently, this can help reduce depressive conditions resulting due to unemployment. The view that a person’s job defined who they are is long overdue hence even the employed suffer from depression.
The Mental Health Consequences of Unemployment
What does it mean to have sociological Imagination?
Having sociological imaginations means that a person views activities, people, problems, and events from a different perspective other than every day’s routine (Giddens, 1996). Such a person views things from a third party perspective. For instance, instead of considering drinking coffee as a self-care activity one can see it as caffeine containing beverage that causes addiction.

Also one can view the same coffee drinking as a social ambience that brings friends and business partners together during meetings. In such a case one is said to have sociological imaginations. Sociological imaginations set the difference between people. For instance, how people view success in life differs. A person using sociological imaginations will see their success in life as having the ability to take care of their needs while usually most people equate success to get employed and having a good job.
What does the article indicate about our society?
According to the article, the society exposes people to some sociological problems due to the people’s perceptions. For instance, employers are impatient to give depressed employees time to recover from their mental states hence end their employment contracts within a year. Whichever the employment status whether employed or seeking employment the society in one way or the other subjects people to depressive situations. When a person loses their job, for example, the community sets them aside from their workmates which subjects them to psychological torture. Presently, the society had made it hard for one to know what to take pride in since unlike in the past when one’s job defined who there was the notion has now changed. Due to the way the society views the unemployed, the predicament not only subjects them to economic problems but also psychological ones. The mental issues arise due to lack of connection and relationship security when one loses their jobs or when they are unemployed. What this means is that the society has set boundaries on relationships where the unemployed are not fully integrated into the community hence subjecting them to sociological torture that leads to depression. Consequently, most unemployed people have depression which makes their unemployment struggle even worse as they can hardly secure and retain a job in that status.
Additional source of information and how it adds to my understanding of activities/issues addressed in the article
The article “Vocational Psychology at the fork in the road: Staying the course or taking the road less travelled” by Blustein (2011) increases my understanding on this matter since it capitalizes on how the people view middle-class population which comprises of people who seek employment merely to survive. The article primarily addresses the subject of vocational psychology which helps in understanding why people keep on pursuing employment. The subject addresses the problem of unemployment and how the people can learn to find their ways of making it in life without necessarily having to be employed. Consequently, this article is important as it harnesses my understanding on how the “must be employed mentality” leads to depression and other psychological disorders for the unemployed as well as to those who happen to lose their jobs. The article by Bubonya et al., (2017) also helps me understand why even the employed suffer from depression. According to Bubonya et al., (2017), there is a critical relationship between one’s employment status and depression. The article further explains how extended unemployment and job transitions affect one’s mental state and also how depression can also make one suffer unemployment.
References
Bubonya, M., Cobb-Clark, D. A., & Ribar, D. C. (2017). The Bilateral Relationship between Depressive Symptoms and Employment Status. Life Course Centre.
Blustein, D. L. (2011). Vocational Psychology at the Fork in the Road: Staying the Course or Taking the Road Less Traveled. Journal of Career Assessment, 19(3)
Giddens, A. (1996). “Sociological Imagination”. Introduction to Sociology. Karl Bakeman. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-393-93232-4
Rosen, R. A. J. (2014). The Mental-Health Consequences of Unemployment. The Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com