There’s an uncomfortable truth we rarely say out loud:
good mental health care, in the way it’s currently structured, is a luxury.
If you can afford therapy at $150–$300 per session. If you have the privilege of flexible work hours and good insurance. If you live in a city with available therapists and short waitlists.Then mental health support is accessible to you.
But what about everyone else?
What about the single parent working two jobs with no insurance coverage? What about the young adult stuck on a 3 month waitlist just to get evaluated? What about the millions who suffer silently not because they don’t want help, but because they simply can’t afford it?
Mental Health Care Is Not a Luxury. But It’s Treated Like One.
The cost of therapy in the U.S. alone can rival rent or groceries. A single 50 minute session often costs more than a week’s worth of food for a family. Insurance rarely covers it fully. Many therapists don’t take insurance at all. Even when someone can afford therapy, access isn’t guaranteed. Waitlists can stretch for weeks or months. Culturally competent care is scarce. In rural areas, therapists may not exist at all. So the people who need help the most, those under financial strain, in unstable housing, or working unstable hours, are the same people who face the steepest barriers to care. This isn’t a personal failure. This is a systemic failure.
The Emotional Cost of Being Priced Out of Healing
When therapy is a luxury, suffering becomes something people must endure quietly. They tell themselves:
• “Other people have it worse.”
• “I’ll figure it out on my own.”
• “I can’t afford to fall apart.”
And over time, that quiet suffering compounds. Anxiety festers. Depression deepens. Trauma goes unprocessed. Relationships strain. Cycles repeat. Not because people are weak. But because help was out of reach.
What the Research Shows
• Mental illness disproportionately impacts lower income communities. Studies show individuals living below the poverty line are twice as likely to experience serious psychological distress than those above it.
• Economic stress worsens mental health. Financial instability amplifies anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms.
• Access matters. People with affordable, timely mental health care experience lower rates of hospitalization, substance use, and suicide.
Mental health shouldn’t depend on your tax bracket. It should be a human right.
A System Built for the Few, Not the Many
Our current system rewards privilege: those who can pay for private care get quick access to quality therapy. Those who can’t are told to wait. Or settle for patchwork solutions that don’t address their pain. This is not what “care” should look like. This is not what healing should cost.
It Doesn’t Have to Stay This Way
Technology isn’t a magic fix but it can break open doors that have been locked for too long. It can bring reflection, guidance, and emotional support to people who’ve been excluded from the system. It can offer help at 2 a.m., when there’s no therapist on call but the pain is loud. It can make mental health support a right, not a privilege. This is why Neurah exists. Not to replace therapists. But to fill the gap between crisis and care, for everyone. Because no one should have to choose between rent and healing. Because your ability to heal should never depend on your wallet. And because your pain matters, even if the system has ignored it.
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