Stigma: “a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.”
I think a lot of people don’t realize how harmful stigma is in the mental illness realm. When someone has a mental illness, they often feel extremely ashamed about it. The question of “what is wrong with me?” might run on a continuous loop through their mind, with feelings of loneliness, hopelessness, and stress adding to their anguish. And instead of reaching out for answers, most tend to bury their issues because of the unflattering light our society shines on mental illness.
Even though things are showing signs of improvement, mental illness is for the most part wildly misrepresented in the media. These portrayals often stray far from the truth, relying on stereotypes or simply amplifying the negative. In some cases, the mental illnesses are being conveyed in a completely false manner. Typically, TV and movie characters are seen as freaks, criminals, basketcases, weirdos, … the list goes on. There are, thankfully, realistic and more forgiving portrayals out there, but they appear sparsely.
Though we might see a schizophrenic homeless man or an anorexic teenage girl on our favorite TV show, mental illness is rarely a topic of conversation. Honestly, it’s a topic that makes me a bit uncomfortable, since these conversations are often intense and personal. People are afraid. They don’t want to admit that they have depression because they don’t want to be met with “well, I just saw you smile this morning.” When someone admits that they have an eating disorder, they don’t want to be told that “they aren’t skinny enough to have one” or that “boys can’t have eating disorders.” Even if someone doesn’t have a mental illness, I could see that they might not want to even bring up a debate on mental illness out of fear that they could be mislabeled.
In order to help erase the stigma surrounding mental illness, people need to learn to be more open about. The only way that this can be done is by empowering individuals with mental illness to share their stories. This can obviously be a very scary thing, but I know that I always have admiration for any individual that opens up about their struggle with depression, or their experiences with anxiety, or their battle with an eating disorder (which, yes, is a mental illness). When one person comes forward, I can guarantee you that someone else will be inspired to share themselves. It’s a powerful chain reaction. Once more people - people who are classmates, friends, cousins, etc. - share their stories about their mental illness, mental illness won’t seem so foreign or weird or uncomfortable anymore. It doesn’t have to be any of those things. Society has been telling us the wrong story.
If mental illness continues being such an off-limits subject, the consequences will be damaging. People need to feel safe. They need to feel like they aren’t alone. They need to feel accepted. Or else there’s a possibility that their mental illness might worsen, their relationships with others and their relationship with themselves might take a hit, and they might even refuse help or medication out of shame.
Mental illness is common. Mental illness is not a weakness. Mental illness does not have a quick fix. Mental illness comes in all sorts of forms, shapes, and sizes, and does not discriminate based on gender, age, race, economic status, geographic location, or appearance. Everyone needs to realize this. Proper awareness needs to be taught in schools, at all levels. Parents need to sit down their children and have a real conversation about this.
Educate yourself. Educate others. End the stigma surrounding mental illness.
A few great resources:
Time To Change (a whole website dedicated to ending mental health discrimination)