Quote:
Originally Posted by tecomsin
I hope that other people step up to the plate to talk about the effect of stigma on their lives. I have internalized the rejection I feel from society for having a devastating mental illness. I feel bad about myself, about what I have done while manic and not done while depressed.
Do you relate?
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I get what you're talking about, but the problem is external stigma. Why? Because were there no stigma from outside, no one would feel bad from inside, too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by luvyrself
----Thanks so much for starting this. Those of us who are still hiding our diagnosis are sick of it Im sure. And seeing so many prejudices crumbling down over the decades makes us resent having to hide it. I just showed my age, I guess, LOL! I'm semi retired right now, so I feel a degree of liberation. I would still hide it if I were working. NAMI is working on this, the younger generation of royalty in Great Britain, etc. More of us would have to come out to fight this effectively, I think.
I think some progress has been made. I remember when the stigma was worse. People were just afraid of mental illness in general. Way back, before lithium, depression and bipolar were to a large extent untreatable. Now there are more and more medications available and I think that has helped.And today many people realize how many people have at least depression at some time in their life.
On the down side (great bipolar pun LOL) the school shootings and other non political mass attacks (or all of them)increase stigma because the perpetrators are clearly mentally ill.
My family doesn't understand bipolar and they know me. My mom had situational depression and my grandfather had depression also so she understands at least the depression part. I have had this for 40 years, diagnosed myself, and diagnosed myself as mixed states and some days I myself feel I don't understand bipolar (my triggers, how far I can push myself, etc.) I think educating our family and the public is the first step in fighting stigma. It would be great if more celebrities would come out and help raise money for this. Some marches, teeshirts, armbands, etc would be great. Tee shirt could say Bipolars give twice the love!
Hugs everyone!
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There
is a continuum effect to mental health. From the looks of it, even if someone doesn't have a mental illness, he'd be aware of it from acquaintances and eventually come to terms with it and be aware of its existence. And because the person will accept mental illnesses as a real thing, the person will acknowledge it for both themselves and their future family as something normal, despite that person never having had any form of mental illness
However, I personally have a problem with the mental health system which I can discuss right now.
One of the problems is black & white views - "good and bad", "weak and strong", "worthy and unworthy", etc
While I know from my readings and experiences that conditions according to professionals are "not about good or bad" for instance, the fact that the client initially feels the negative side of the spectrum about themselves comes to show that it's true, in the sense of giving in.
Yes, some therapists will say "No, you are not bad/a burden/whatever", or "It's not about what is right and what is wrong"... until they start to work on some conditions of yours and then you ponder "Wait... so a part of me was wrong all along?"
Now I'm starting to get what tecomsin means about internalized stigma. But I think we all sought treatment because of forms of social failures. I'm open to hear of otherwise cases