Blog #12 What can be done to reduce the stigma and shame that still surround mental illness?

Mental illness is just that... an illness. As with any stigma or stereo-type, the only way to get people to see past it is to educate them. Unfortunately with negative stigma, there is usually a great deal of shame and denial, which prevents people from coming forward with their conditions. This chain reaction prevents people who support the stigma from understanding that they interact with people suffering from mental illness every day. People who incorporate treatment into their everyday routine to function normally in society. People who have hopes and dreams and families just like the rest of us. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has a wonderful public education program "in which two trained consumer speakers share compelling personal stories about living with mental illness and achieving recovery." (NAMI, 2009) During the presentation, audience members are encouraged to interact with questions and personal experiences to get a better understanding of what living with mental illness is like. 

Another effect of the negative stigma is that people are less likely to seek help and those that do may suffer more intense feeling of depression or social rejection because of the way they associate themselves with the stigma. According to our text, more than 50% of those suffering from a mental disorder fail to seek professional help. (Alexander, L.L., LaRosa, J.H., Bader, H. & Garfield, S., 2007) It makes you wonder how the criminal, homeless and suicide rates would be affected if we could eliminate the shame associated with this illness. 

Change always starts with one. Do not use negative or derogatory names for those suffering from mental illness. If you know someone with a condition, read up on the symptoms and treatments to better understand that this is a normal person affected by an illness. And always treat them with dignity; remember, that man on the corner who begs and talks out loud to himself may be the same person who marched the Dr Martin Luther King Jr., or taught science to a chemist who invented a vaccine that saved thousands, or protected you from harm during wartime. Even if he is not any of those things, he is a person who once held as much potential as the rest of us until one day he became ill. It can happen to any of us, so please make an effort to treat him with respect.

Alexander, L.L., LaRosa, J.H.,Bader, H. & Garfield, S. (2007). New dimensions in women's health 4th ed. Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). (2009). In our own voice. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from, http://www.nami.org/template.cfm?section=In_Our_Own_Voice