Stigma is something that can be seen outwardly like when a family member avoids you due to your depression or you’re passed over for a promotion because your coworkers discovered you’re diagnosed with schizophrenia. It’s also seen in public perceptions as noted in the Surgeon’s General report where 60% of people felt like people with schizophrenia behaved violently.
But the biggest danger of mental health stigma is when it’s felt inwardly. Because no matter how unfairly people treat you ourwardly, it’s nothing compared to the effects of feeling the stigma inside.
Stigma and Mental Illness
Mental illness was once thought of as demonic possession, but then, most things were. After that period passed, mental illness was thought of as a person failing and of immoral character and disobedience of moral law.
And although we have come a long way from these beliefs, more than one-in-three people still believe that mental illnesses are completely different from physical illnesses and more than one-in-two believe that avoiding someone with a mental illness is not a form of discrimination.
Feeling Mental Illness Stigma
And not only do these beliefs creep into the mind’s of people with a mental illness due to outward behavior, but some of the people who hold those beliefs are people with a mental illness themselves! Being diagnosed doesn’t protect you from being stigmatized nor feeling stigma about your own illness.
We Have to Beat Stigma
But I can tell you, from the bottom of my extremely well-researched heart that stigma is unfair and public perceptions are wrong. People with a mental illness are just people with an illness. We do not deserve discrimination any more than anyone else does.
And if my words don’t convince you, consider this. People with greater internalized stigma have lower self-esteem, lower social functioning and worse recovery outcomes. That should be enough to motivate you to get rid of the poison that you don’t deserve. Stigma, by the way, tends to be less in people who accept a medical cause of mental illness as well as a medical treatment.
Because in the end, people can stigmatize you all they want – but you have the power not to take it on and not to let it affect your recovery.
You can find Natasha Tracy on Facebook or GooglePlus or @Natasha_Tracy on Twitter.
During recovery from a very recent episode, I discovered I was actually stigmatizing myself by trapping myself under a huge burden of shame for having Bipolar Disorder. This was shocking to me, I am an intelligent and kind woman who would never intentionally hurt or stigmatize another, why the heck was I doing it to myself?! When I thought it through logically (once the meds kicked in), it didn’t make any sense to feel ashamed for something I was born with. The freedom from the weight of this 7-year burden of shame has been so freeing, I now feel motivated to get involved and speak up. Thank you for another highly-relevant, accurate, inspiring post, Natasha.
I agree with all you say but no matter how high your self-esteem and compliance with treatment and good recovery outcomes, it still hurts when others avoid you or make hurtful comments. I tend to be optimistic and believe things are surely improving in the world regarding stigma. Maybe one day and I don’t believe I’m being negative, only realistic.
I love your realism, Rhonda. I believe we’ll see the end of stigma against mental health within 10 years. Maybe optimistic, but alot of people are mobilizing this movement.
Amelia, I can completely relate to your experience. I’m still dealing with the self-stigmatization. I know that I would never judge others like I judge myself, yet it still hurts a lot of the time. Even with a period with less episodes, I’m still feeling it; I’m working on it through therapy. Hopefully I can stop one day.
I’m not really ashamed of having a mood disorder per say- I’m ashamed that I am less reliable, that I haven’t always been able to function, that I haven’t done the things in my life that I would have liked to do. And if I were to use my mood disorder as an excuse, that would just increase the stigma that people with bipolar are unreliable. But if people don’t know that about me, then my life doesn’t make sense, either.
Mental health state implies both a satisfying life functioning and good emotional feeling at any time and everywhere. The second one issue indicates many subjective and contradictory massages. Therefore it is important to have a real perception on psychiatric patient’views on personal psychological experiences,that perform overall internal emotional life. In this direction, your suggestion on acceptance and maintenance of psychiatric treatment, from patient and its close relatives, is of fundamental relevance.Mental health exhibits more challenges, because it is still many social stigma that deteriorate the process of appropriate recovering of respective mental disorder.These remarks should be of great surveillance from psychiatrist and others mental health staff that manage the treatment of mental illnesses.