Having a mental illness makes me different. At least that's what society says. How can one not start to believe it when it's all they have been exposed to? It's a terrible thing for me to say, but I once believed it. I hit a very low point in my life, I was dealing with my mental illness of major depression, anxiety, I just moved houses and schools, and my parents were recently divorced. Our society put all the pressure on that I was different for having my mental illnesses and I truly believed it. People do not know how much of an impact the mental health stigma really affects one with a mental health issue. I want to explain to at least one person how it makes one feel. Explaining it to someone could eventually spread their awareness to others …show more content…
I have been labeled crazy, freak, attention seeker, faker, and different. Those labels are just a few, it's crazy with the names or labels people can come up with. High school is already a hard time in a lot of people's lives and having a mental illness throughout it makes it no easier. Teenagers are known to gossip, judge, and bully. Most teenagers can admit to doing that at least once. I have seen it countless times throughout my highschool career, and I have experienced people do it first hand. People are very uneducated on mental illnesses, so when it actually comes up in their life with a friend or an acquaintance they don't know what to do. So they start gossiping, judging, and bullying them. It really hurts when people start labeling you. My own sister called me a faker. It broke my heart, but I learned that I needed to get over it. That's how I thought I would always be viewed as by our society. I was put in a hospital for my safety because of my mental illness. Many people think that you're crazy if you have to go to the hospital. They think you have something along the lines of schizophrenia. Not all mental illnesses are like that. My own friends didn't know what to do when I told them I had to go to the hospital because I was suicidal. They started telling other people that I was in there without my permission. They completely lost my trust. It feels terrible to have people gossip about you with something you can't even control. I remember one of …show more content…
There is no doubt about it. Things need to change or things could get really bad for people with mental health issues. The outsiders don't understand how bad this stigma can affect a person. It is just another stress on top of the already stressful mental illness. I wish people could understand how I and others feel, but I know that will never happen. People will never truly understand what we have to go through and they don't seem to grasp that we are just as human as them. We have feelings too. But that's okay, there are ways to help them to understand how we feel and to educate them on the subject. One major step that needs to be taken in ending the stigma is educating. People need to be educated on the subjects at school and in the workplace. Really anywhere that it can be taught. If people started to get educated that would be a major impact on the start to making a change.. Having classes on how to communicate with people with mental illness would be great too. People need to be more accepting and I feel them being more educated on the subject will help. People can make a change and it needs to be done. I want this subject to be talked about and everyone to stand up against the stigma. I want change, for me and everyone I know who has suffered from a mental illness. We deserve it. Lets fight this stigma and make a change because I am not
For a very long time, mental health was a disease people would not dare speak about. The stigma associated with mental health meant that it was viewed as a curse or simply poor upbringing. Crazy, right? (Pardon the pun). Although it’s not seen as a curse by us in this generation any more, many people with mental health issues still have to face ignorance, prejudice and discrimination from our society just because of their lack of understanding or reluctance to try and understand. Be that as it may, these attitudes directly impact upon how and if people choose to seek help, making the negative and ignorant opinions and attitudes of others potentially dangerous to many individuals and the people around them.
In the book, “Rampage”, it is discussed, because many kids who go through the school system are not known well enough to see the warning signs. No one wants their child to have this negative stigma that goes along with mental illness, so they blind themselves to what is there. Most parents make excuses for why their child is exhibiting behaviors of mental illness, and hope that it goes away. However, for some children it does not. And these are the children who slip through the cracks in the school system and go unnoticed by others.
Both Meg and Jim explained that when growing up, mental illness was something that was never talked about in their schools. As a result, children then and now act negatively towards the concept of mental health. Meg shared an example from her life where this was especially apparent. She explained that growing up she had a lot of friends. However, once her illness grew increasingly worse during her senior year of high school, she noticed that her friend group dwindled dramatically. Her friends did not understand what she was going through. They would tell her that they did not like to spend time with her because ‘she sucked the fun out of everything.’ At this point in time, Meg was having a very hard time with her mental illness and the loss of her friends seemed to be a tipping point for her. It pushed her further into her sad state where she started using self-harm as a way to cope. Knowledge pertaining to mental health is extremely important. Research shows that “most children around five years of age have knowledge of stereotypes related to mental illness, and report that they personally believe them. Negative attitudes towards mental illness observed tend to be consolidated during adulthood (Campos, Palha, Dias, Lima, Veiga, Costa & Duarte, 2012, p.259-260).” Stereotypes resulting in stigmas are learned at a young age. It is critical that kids start learning the
The discussion of mental health is slowly being brought to the social surface to create a more inclusive society for those dealing with a mental illness. However, those with a mental illness are continuously being affected by stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination by those who simply don’t comprehend the complexity of the human brain (Glaser, G.2017). As more people become mental health activist, they are exposing the plethora of issues surrounding the overall mental and physical stability of those who are negatively affected by the social construct of what it means to be normal.
There is a stigma surrounding seeking help for mental illness that needs to be broken. Mental illness is not to be taken lightly, it is a serious matter. These people need genuine help; help that they should be able to seek without having to worry about repercussions.
This is widely due to mass media creating a stigma for the mentally ill people that most of the general population tend to believe in the United States. I will begin with what I remember of my experience of learning I have mental health illness. I remember suffering heavily through my early teens to my twenties with depression. I had tried at that time just about every type of depression medication available and none of them worked for me. It wasn't until I was in my twenties that my depression just kind of went away.
A person that internalizes it can experience a loss of socioeconomic status, restricted social networks, lowered self-esteem, and lower quality of life (Markowitz, Angell, & Greenberg, 2011). This is because those that believe that their illness makes them more dangerous and believe they may not be in control become so focused on the illness they are not trying to have some parts of their lives back to normal. This is better illustrated by Labeling theory that states people performs roles in society and the responses they get from others in these roles helps them form a concept of themselves and how they are viewed by others. Those with a diagnosis may be cast into the role of mentally ill by family or society and the negative influences they get from that role can affect how they see themselves in any role. This can cause those with mental illness to stop seeking out social roles, because they feel they may not meet others expectations. They often will then fill roles that they are socialized are normal for them as depressed or delinquent. This was another issue our interviewee discussed when she said sometimes her loved ones would continue to view her as depressed even when she was no longer in a dark place(B. Pollock, personal communication, March 17,
This essay will attempt to outline and explain the effects that stigma attached to mental health issues may have on one’s life and strategies for over coming self-stigma as well as public stigma. I will first explain stigma in the context of mental health and briefly explain the detriments this can have on a person’s life followed by a more in-depth analysis of the aforementioned stigmas. I will follow this up with strategies and models for disabling both public and self-stigma as a result of mental health.
Rusch, et al. "Mental Illness Stigma: Concepts, Consequences, And Initiatives To Reduce Stigma." European Psychiatry 20-8 (2005): 529-539. Print.
The mental health stigma has become a prevalent issue in the world of medical care. It can prevent people from receiving proper medical care and the quality of care people may receive. Stigma is defined as members of groups who violate the norms established by the dominant or privileged group and, as such, are marked as deviant (Jr. and Kite). Stigma can also lead to discrimination. The way we can try and diminish the severity of the stigma is to create transparency and openness about mental illness. Seeing that people are not defined by their disorder and can be successful regardless of the diagnosis. That they are not defined by their diagnosis they just have and suffer with the disorder. Also promoting education about mental health issues can diminish the myths about these issues thus lessening the amount of stigma. I have seen instances on our own campus in which they could have promoted counseling and mental health among the student body. I think the staff body could have took a more proactive approach to mental health. Instead of waiting until after students committed suicide and trying to fix the problem they could actively be promoting it regardless of the instances on the university campus. There are two different types of stigma; public and self-stigma. These stigmas can have different effects on the individual. Everyone has mental health and raising awareness about it and eliminating the stigma can help the world learn how to discuss and change this problem.
Stereotypes and stigmas promote a dangerous, single-minded perspective. These incomplete or half-truths are often far more duplicitous than lies, as they are more difficult to detect. When these perspectives remain unchecked, they can result in far-reaching, adverse consequences. It is the individual’s duty to refuse to perpetuate this single story perspective. Due to misinformation presented by the media, the stigma surrounding mental illness has created a discriminatory single story perspective; however, through honest and open dialogue, particularly with those suffering from these diseases, these stereotypes can be abolished.
Why is there a cloud of judgment and misunderstanding still surrounding the subject? People with a mental disorder or with a history of mental health issues are continually ostracized by society. This results in it being more difficult than it already is for the mentally ill to admit their symptoms to others and to seek treatment. To towards understanding mental illness is to finally lift the stigma, and to finally let sufferers feel safe and accepted within today’s society. There are many ways in which the mentally ill are degraded and shamed.
People with a mental illness are often feared and rejected by society. This occurs because of the stigma of mental illness. The stigma of mental illness causes the perception of individuals with mental illnesses to be viewed as being dangerous and insane. They are viewed and treated in a negative way. They are almost seen as being less of a human. The stigma affects the individual with a mental illness in such a cruel way. The individual cannot even seek help without the fear of being stigmatized by their loved ones or the general public. The stigma even leads to some individuals developing self-stigma. This means having a negative perception of one’s self, such as viewing one’s self as being dangerous. The worst part is that the effects of
My grandmother struggled with mental illness in her later years and was treated discriminately, even by the staff that was to care for her in the nursing home. The answer to “dealing” with my grandmother was to drug her so much she couldn’t talk or tie her to her bed and leave her in the room to scream. I find that many people who have mental illness are shut out and the people around them do what they have to pretend it doesn’t exist and ignore it so they can go on with their lives. I think people with mental illness are seen as burdens or dangerous and are blocked out from society whether that be relationships, jobs or other simple forms of life and socialization. Discrimination against people with mental illness will even happen in the person’s own family and people who say they love them will give up on them and consider them a waste of time because their own lives are falling apart trying to cope with the family member.
There is many sources of the stigma but one of the main source is people’s ignorance