(The following is a reasonably long and serious discussion of a sensitive social topic that I want to weigh in on. It is a rare occassion when I feel the need to do this but feel free to take a read if youre procrastinating or are interested in discussion on Mental Health :) ) Id like to respond to a new social fad that has been circulating the media these days; I’m talking about the concept of “the *stigma* of mental illness.” This new social campaign, to me, seems to parallel many other misplaced good intentions of our new age of growing social awareness and acceptance. In a specific sense, my problem with the talk of “stigma” is that it bullshits the real problem. The real problem is ignorance. I am constantly appalled by the reactions people have when confronted with those categorized under certain mental illness diagnoses; pop culture and unexperienced peers have made them vastly unprepared, not due to a lack of compassion but due to an excess of stupid. The following are a couple illustrations of real-world reactions I have witnessed: 1. “Oh wow, that person was diagnosed with schizophrenia? But I don’t think they have two personalities though.” 2. “But if she is bipolar wouldn’t she be angry all the time?” 3. “you cant be bulimic, you eat just as much as I do.” These comments don’t demonstrate some underpinning concept of “stigma”…… guys just educate yourselves so you don’t sound like this. *This* is the reason why mental illness is on the down low. Many people feel they have to first convince you they have an illness, and lay out what that illness entails before you can even react to it genuinely. This issue of a lack of general self-education is not unique of Mental Health. For example, it has been demonstrated that a large issue facing feminists is simply the fact that people don’t have an accurate conception of it. “so you’re a feminist; you want women to take over?” nope, that is not what the term means. Many other parallels can be drawn of this nature. As for the issue of Mental Health ignorance, I am not saying self-education will solve *all* problems of misunderstanding and miscommunication but it will make me a lot less angry about the subject. Mental health is a conversation topic I hold close to heart, and media marketing schemes like “Bell Lets Talk” day and the likes simply reduce a very important issue in the same way “Kony 2012” did. I am attaching a helpful link.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 23:49:00 +0000
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