Mental Illness Stigma

[eve1974]

There is still a stigma associated with any mental illness, be that depression / anxiety to things like schizophrenia and bipolar (and every other mental illness in betweens).

It can't only be because of lack of knowledge as educating others about mental illness seems to have come along a lot in recent years.

Why do people simply not talk about these sort of illness?

[Mamyalynne]

Thankfully more and more people do talk about their experiences now but you will always get a small but headstrong hard core who see it as an excuse,a sob story or a weakness.

Those people are harder to win over and should be avoided.

[Cloverjo]

There is less of a stigma nowadays, but there’s still that ‘Pull yourself together’ brigade, as Mamya says.

[Sqad]

////Those people are harder to win over and should be avoided.////

Follow that post, it reminds me of the attitude of approaching the problem of obesity.

[Ringlet]

I think people are still afraid of mental illness because they perceive the symptoms to be beyond anything they could imagine or experience. Issues such as hallucinations, manic episodes or even severe anxiety and panic attacks frighten people. The media doesn't help, of course, psychosis is portrayed in films and TV series as the sure sign of a crazed murderer, and people with anxiety or depression are not portrayed sympathetically. There is no point in trying to "educate" people until the misconceptions that are reinforced by the media are addressed in a sympathetic and intelligent way.

[wolf63]

The minds of many people link being bad with being mentally ill. Some times people do bad things just because they are nasty people but not mentally ill.

Mental Health issues are talked about more now than twenty years ago and that can only be a good thing.

:-)

[rowanwitch]

Taking time to explain what is going on in your head sometimes is difficult for a number of reasons
1) everyone you speak to seems to have their own idea for example what being depressed is... Comments like you don't seem sad/down. No right now I haven't got any emotion left to show sadness .
2).there really isn't a common language for mental health that is widely understood.
So conditions get grouped by the sad/ bad/dangerous categories. Doesn't fit the schizophrenic whose voices tell them to self harm, the bipolar patient who expresses their condition in impulse shopping rather than obvious outrageous behaviour.
3). The behavioural overlap with other conditions, the inability to deal with intense situations especially in younger patients who are the group least understood can present as autistic spectrum disorders, withdrawal, refusing eye contact, and aggression

The idea that depression can be an illness of biochemistry, nothing to do with difficult life events is often denied by those you encounter. Trying to explain that taking medication for some is like a diabetic needing insulin it replaces something your body should normally produce, or stops the body destroying the naturally produced chemical is sometimes next to impossible.

I can understand why people don't share and struggle on, sometimes to the point of crisis of worse. I will always try to explain if someone wants to know as it maybe they have seen it developing within themself or someone they know, and to signpost services or further reliable sources of information.

[tiggerblue10]

I've had bouts of depression in the past and odd down days since then. Whenever I mention it to certain people around me I get 'oh FGS' as a response and complete dismissal.

[nailit]

Ive endured 4 times in a psychiatric institution in my 54 yrs on Earth.
The shrinks that Ive encountered are more potty than the inmates (sorry, I mean patients).

[woofgang]

I think also there is a long popular history of mental illness=madness=evil.....all the horror films and books. Even among sufferers you come across the belief that they will lose control and do bad things.

[nailit]

//Whenever I mention it to certain people around me I get 'oh FGS' as a response and complete dismissal//

And after decades Ive learnt to say ****you!
Earnestly mean that Tiggs.
Unless you have walked in my shoes, dont judge me.

[andy-hughes]

I have always been really angry with the term 'depression' because it hasn't got the gravity of meaning it should have.

It's human nature for people to assume that 'having depression' is the same as being depressed, and of course, it's not, it's a million miles away.

Being 'depressed' is part of the human condition, everyone has it from time to time, hence the notion that you can 'pull yourself together' because if you are depressed, you can.

But Depression is not like that, and this is where the misunderstanding kicks in.

I remember discussing this with a fellow patient when I was 'inside' and I said then, and still say now, that if 'being depressed' is spraining your ankle, than 'Depression' is having your foot cut off with a rusty tin lid - that is how far apart the two experiences actually are.

We should find a new word to describe this illness, and it should have the same ring of dread and understanding that Cancer has - no-one would tell a Cancer patient to 'pull themselves together'.

Yes I am aware that one is physical, and the other is psychological, but I honestly feel their level of seriousness and impact are on a par with each other, and would welcome a re-classification of the condition to accurately reflect how serious and damaging it is, and to divorce it once and for all with the supposed similarity to 'being a bit fed up ...'.

People get past being fed up, like i said, it is part of our standard make up - but people don't get past Depression - far too many of them die to escape it.

[rowanwitch]

There is a point when I am coming out of a bad attack of depression where I know that I have to avoid stressful situations, it's the point where I am well enough to do stuff but my impulse control isn't very good. I know if someone or a situation wound me up enough I could lash out. It doesn't last long. Dave used to be pretty good at keeping me calm and balanced..... Without him let's just say I probably shouldn't be in a bad mood near sharp objects, and that may sound flippant but it is very real.

[Old_Geezer]

I don't tend to speak about any illness, mental or physical. It's not the sort of thing that crops up in conversation.

However one can see the reason for reluctance to discuss mental issues. With physical issues one has an inkling as to what the sufferer might need to do, whereas with mental illness it's likely to effect personality which is more difficult to predict, or to cope with. So even if it's unfortunate that it isn't much discussed, one can see why that is so.

[nailit]

Ive lost so many friends to so called mental illness it scare me. I attended 3 funerals in 1 year to so called 'mental illness.'

In fact I attended 3 funerals needlsly because so called medics refused to listen to concerns raised about the mentality of patients presented.
Nothing has changed since.

[ladybirder]

//no-one would tell a Cancer patient to 'pull themselves together'.\\
Wrong Andy. Someone said it to me while I was still digesting my cancer diagnosis. I was so shocked and don't think I'll ever forget it.

[andy-hughes]

ladybirder - // //no-one would tell a Cancer patient to 'pull themselves together'.\\
Wrong Andy. Someone said it to me while I was still digesting my cancer diagnosis. I was so shocked and don't think I'll ever forget it. //

I am shocked to read that, but every rule has its exception.

I think in general terms, for every one time a cancer sufferer has heard it, a thousand depression sufferers have heard it.

[douglas9401]

On the plus side though it's one of our few growth industries.

[Spungle]

In days gone by, talking about your depression or admitting to any "mental weakness" would see you talked about by family and friends as "a head case", potentially ostracised from society and certainly passed by for promotion or the likes. There is always part of Britain that prefers to keep "a stiff upper lip", which is now rightly seen as a weakness rather than a strength. The ironic thing is that some of the greatest people of the same era were of course also suffering from depression and mental illness- and turned to drink, distractions, and would rather suffer than to "open up" and talk.

As someone who has had a history of depression and mental illness in my family, I know first-hand the devastating effects of NOT talking about these illnesses has on the persons, and the whole family.

[emmie]

the stats are or were when i was in a mental health hospital, pitiful, that 1 in 4 people will suffer some form of mental health difficulty in their life and for many that can mean anything from a mild depression to schizophrenia, to Bi Polar. I have walked in those shoes Nailit, it's unfathomable that some people can be so dismissive when you tell them the truth, It can and does hit people from every category, every colour, creed you name it.
It is still hard to talk about, as one you has been through ECT, several times in the past and can testify that that has its own stigma,
been fairly well now is a major shift, but it can so easily slide down hill. I have sympathy in spades for anyone who is suffering

[emmie]

\having been in mental health hospitals three times in the last twenty years i can back up nailits remarks that the staff are often lazy, stupid, and have no empathy with their charges whatsoever, and that they are nowhere near the people we need to run these institutions. Many of the staff were nasty self serving individuals who shouldn't be any where near these prisons of the mind