[antistigma]

What can we do to stop this world's discrimination against mental illnesses? Do you think we can completely eradicate the stigma some day?

[Rhapsody]

No....... I do not feel as though this world will ever totally accept that mental illness does not mean one is CRAZY or INSANE - - - the people in this world will always refuse to be educated as a whole.

I just accept that I am not crazy.... just a little unwell (and) it is up to the other person to get to know me as a human being with a lot to give back.


LoVe,
Rhapsody -

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The terms of who is mentally ill and criteria for diagnostic criteria change and evolve to fit the times so yea I believe there will once again come a time when seeing a therapy professional isn't looked down on by anyone. As for having people be against mental illness. no one is a clone of each other and everyone has their own beliefs and fears and so on. Alot of times people fear what they don't understand so they put it down. Not everyone in the world is going to totally understand every mental health disorder. its impossible. just like more and more physical illnesses are discovered and named every day so are mental disorders and even those in the fields of those disorders don't know everything about them so people who are not in the mental and medical fields are not going to know and understand. So no stigma of any mental or physical disorder is not going to be completely eradicated some day.

[nothemama8]

As long as we know we are mentally healthy and let our communities where we live see that we are an asset, then we can start educating the ppl in our communities.
Angie

[Maven]

Education is the only thing that will change it, but not everyone's willing to be educated. Add to that the people that mis-educate.

[Lexicon78]

I highly doubt it. Too many people would rather be ignorant than listen to how things really are.

I think that the biased people will always downgrade the mentally ill. It's the same as they do for homo/bisexuals and other races. It's just they refuse to open their minds to anything really.

To me it's just wrong, but I guess that's how the world is.

[Maven]

That's basically what I said. Some people refuse to be educated.

[hillbunnyb]

Come out come out wherever you are. Just like all the misconceptions and exaggerations and outright lies people believe about gays...... Nobody is like anybody else. We are each a unique blend (whether diagnosed or not). We all need to respect and learn about each to dispell myths and stereotypes. One person at a time, if that's what it takes.

Most people assume that to be mentally ill is to be extremely mentally ill in a room somewhere drooling from medication OR out on the street scaring the hell out of people. They resist the broad spectrum that is diagnosable -because it would include them - in my humble opinion.

That "little thing" they feel "once in a while".... we feel strongly, and alot. Type trip. We've learned it's not all or nothing. It's shades of colors and grey. It takes courage to look. Admit when you find yourself in a spectrum. . .

I resisted it. I blamed everythng on my physical problems and the fact I couldn't sleep. Like that wasn't a significator in and of itself....... humility makes humbleness possible. People look at you differntly..... react to you differently.... are always wondering if you're making a joke or "going off" if they don't know what you mean....... so coming out mentally ill subjets one to public scrutiny. It gets old. That's why i've turned my public persona into a lively silly smiley toothless character...
Humor breaks through many barriers.

[Maven]

I saw a documentary several days ago called "Unbreakable Minds." They featured a service in it--I forget the name of it--that opens group homes in various locations, and they have to get permission from zoning boards or whatever to do this. Every time, they said, they have residents showing up at these meetings with a lot of people trying to stop them. They showed some of these people saying stuff like, "My children run up and down these streets. I don't want them coming into contact with these kinds of people," and saying they wouldn't feel safe. These homes are to help the mentally ill learn how to live a basically normal life. I don't think they take violent persons. These are persons who are able to learn to live on their own.

[Rapunzel]

What so many people just don't want to see is that people who are getting treatment for mental illness are probably healthier than those who are hiding from it and afraid to see that it might apply to them. Those of us who have diagnostic lables and are in therapy are working to better ourselves.

I don't know if stigma can ever be erraticated, but the thing that will make more difference than anything else is for those of us who have mental and emotional disorders and function well and contribute to our communities to let people know who we are so that they can see first-hand that we aren't so scary.

I've heard it told as a joke, the statistic that one in three people suffers from mental illness. The joke says "Think of your two best friends - if they're okay, it's you!" I guess there is some truth in that. But the point is there are so many of us, and nobody wants to think we're right there along side them. They would rather conjure up that image of somebody completely disfunctional locked away somewhere. Somebody not like them at all. But we're just like them, just maybe with a little more self-awareness sometimes.

Rap

[LMo]

Ditto to what Hillybunny and Rapunzel (and everyone, actually) said. We had a thread going on about this topic in the Drug forum.

[tracylee]

Basically, those people who have a problem with our mental health problems should do one of two things. Learn about it or shut up and leave us alone!!! yaaaaaaaaah, it's good to be different and not afraid of our feelings. I often think sometimes I am better off because I dont hide when i am feeling sad or bad or down. Lots of people stumble by too busy to actually feel or see life??