Mental Health Stigma: How does it affect those trying to seek help? how can you help improve mental health stigma?
Your chest feels tight, and it has been like that for a couple of days. The need to cry or yell comes often and it feels like everything goes wrong. The world is closing on you, nothing seems easy, and you are noticing more and more mistakes you are making. You are often judging your decisions or doubting them. You hear words and phrases such as “stress,” “burnout,” “overwhelmed,” or “I need a break” very often. Sometimes your own thoughts are telling you to give up, to stop. Now your automatic mindset is “I can’t do this,” “I am going to fail,” “I am not good enough,” “I don’t deserve them,” “why am I doing this?” “this is just too much!” You feel that you need help, but when talking about what is happening you are often dismissed or told “go for a walk,” “don’t say that,” “why are you feeling like that you have no reason for it.” You are starting to feel unheard and uncared for. You are starting to feel afraid that these feelings are not going away. You feel lonely, you feel that no one understands. Now it has been weeks, months, years but you manage to go to work, to feed your kids, to go out with friends, but you are struggling. Your energy is low, your concentration is poor, and it’s difficult at times to find the spark. Now you are not as present, you are not enjoying, you don’t feel yourself. What limit must you reach before you decided to do something to take care of yourself? What is keeping you from seeking help? From reaching out?
The signs and red flags when it comes to our own mental health are so much easier to ignore, to sweep under the rug. We have been conditioned to question our feelings, to “power through” emotions, to think “don’t feel like that” “don’t think like that.” Over and over we are celebrated for how well we handled things, how good we are at masking emotions. People are often called “strong” and “brave” when they don’t cry or get angry in difficult situations or when they seem to not be faced by problems. Others are called “hysterical” or “sensitive,” or are told that they exaggerate their reaction when showing appropriate emotions to events that deserve such reactions from them. Young boys are told to “man,” which people think of as being stoic or strong but in practice often means emotionless. Young girls are told they are sensitive and don’t know how to regulate their emotions. From the moment we are born our brain is making connections based on genetics, our environment, and behavioral patterns from our parents and family members. These connections are later solidified by societal standards and expectations placed on us.
But no one says “don’t cry” or “don’t feel like that” when a person has just broken their leg. No one says “you are overreacting” when someone is diagnosed with kidney failure, asthma, or diabetes. No one says “don’t take your blood pressure medication” fearing it is not the right treatment.
So why is it that emotional pain and failures in our thought processes are so often dismissed or not treated with the same urgency as other issues? Mental health problems contribute to physical issues such as fatigue, lack of sleep, stomach issues, and migraines. Mental health problems affect how people see themselves as individuals of value in their families and communities, and negatively impact their decision-making process, at times putting them in situations of very high risk. So why is it that such important issues are treated as insignificant or ignored completely?
Mental health has been stigmatized for a long time and conversations around these biases only started to be acknowledged by the mid-20th century. These stigmas are negative beliefs about mental health that arise from a lack of knowledge or fears that result in harmful representations of people that are suffering. Stigmas around mental health cause discrimination and prejudice as people who are struggling with mental illness are often stereotyped as dangerous, unpredictable, and unreliable. This stigmatization creates worse outcomes for these people as the judgment, criticism, and isolation that they experience results in poor treatment, lack of access to essential services, and in some cases a complete denial of medical care.
Years ago, people that suffered with mental health issues were misunderstood, mystified by religion, feared, and frequently seen as sub-human. Although new studies suggest that people today are more open and accepting of mental health conditions caused by medical and genetic problems, there are many people who continue to negatively view others who suffer from mental illness. Current stigmas also criticize and discredit appropriate mental health treatments such as the use of medication or psychotherapy. Media, movies, and books have also done their fair share of negatively portraying mental health, regularly portraying therapy as useless and depicting people with mental illness wearing costumes and disguises that are intended to instill fear and/or anger in the viewers. If you live in America, you have heard how the news regularly uses the term mentally ill to refer to violent criminals such as individuals that involved in mass shootings.
Talking about mental health is not easy; admitting to having a problem is an even more difficult task. Self-stigma is the number one enemy keeping people from seeking help and receiving proper treatment for very treatable disorders. We must acknowledge the equal importance of mental and physical health. We have to acknowledge that to reduce and eliminate stigma we must normalize mental illness through treatment, access to services, and education.
Here are some of the things you can do to help fight mental health stigma:
Become comfortable talking about mental health. Openly talk and discuss issues related to emotions, feelings, thoughts etc. with others.
Do not engage in conversations or actions where someone is ridiculing others with mental illness. Let others know that you do not feel comfortable with those behaviors by setting up boundaries.
Learn and be conscious of the appropriate language to describe mental health disorders in order to avoid falling into using offensive lingo that perpetuates mental health stigma.
Educate yourself about mental illness and then educate others about what you have learned. Try to learn from mental health professionals and not rely on memes, individual opinions, or unreliable pages intended to spread misinformation.
Show empathy and compassion towards others who suffer mental illness.
Acknowledge when you are stigmatizing yourself and show others it is okay to seek treatment, to be open and honest about it, and encourage them to seek out their own treatment if they are struggling.
