Mental Illness Stigma

I've always hated how mental illness seems to be viewed so negatively in society. It's almost an embarrassment to be considered mentally ill. You don't hear anybody saying derogatory words to a cancer patient or someone with kidney disease. But somebody with a mental illness will be called crazy or told to snap out of it. It seems like with this stuff you can be given 20 different medicines all with bad side effects and only a few will work on you . The treatment isn't that diversified and there are only a few ways to treat it. You have to pick 60 pounds , health complications , erectile dysfunction , or feeling mentally healthy to live. It's like the last frontier in healthcare and isn't that completed. If anything though this is one of the reasons why I think I want to have a career in mental health but that's another subject. It effects your life in even more ways then some other health problems and is just as life threatining.

It totally depends on your friends I have the best an I've explained to people that I have a mental illness. Basically I like to make sure everyone knows and has me as a positive example but also that way if I get sick again they know to get me help, that I'm not just playing around. I think the primary issue is ignorance...people just don't know people who are openly mentally ill so you need to be an ambassador for the MI. I think of it like gay rights. Twenty years ago gay people were not openly accepted but now you have to be a total jerk to think negatively about it. But how did that come about? For me it was a simple as having a friend who was gay and would answer a few basic questions. He was my gay ambassador. So now I'm an ambassador for the MI.

Hi, Brosci.
I think it depends with your circle of people. Apart from my immediate family i personally don't tell anyone i'm mentally ill. And of course it's the fear of being stigmatized. I work in an office and constantly hear how they belittle and ridicule people like me. Trust people? Forget about it.

i used to be open slightly. now i dont say a thing. it has backfired so many times - with people literally ignoring me the next day on. also with extended family knowing they dont communicate with me as much. literally overnight type stuff. and really my extended family they dont even know what i have they just knew i was in a psych hospital. i cuoldnt imagine being completely honest.

i dont say anything anymore unless its a place online where i can hide my identidy. but with so many people being on these networks - ive seen family on certain social sites and i dont open up any places anymore. here and a blog. which i may not keep long.

unlike @sometimes said - im not a positive model either. i dont think it would take much for someone to connect things ive done in my life to mental illness so i have to stay extra extra extra low.

I admire your courage and I value your contribution to improving MI stigma, but I'm not there yet. FWIW my brother is openly gay and we live in a big city, and he still occasionally gets abuse hurled at him when he walks down the street. I think he's very brave too. There are a lot of small minded people out there and I don't have the strength to go up against them right now.

Also like Newtus said, at the moment I don't feel like I'd be a positive role model because I'm still really struggling. I'd want to have recovered before I started telling people that I had MI issues (I hope that's what you meant Newtus; if not I apologise cos my reading's not too good at the minute)

*Willow*

You guys are MI ambassadors just being on this site whether you know it or not. A lot of people are too afraid to post and just read about you to get answers for themselves or their family or friends. So too late

no you are right pretty much. although as i feel i could never be a positive model.

yea thats true. i googled schiz before and my posts popped up on even the first page.

The stigma is pervasive. There is so much to the stigma that is just the worst in humans.

-That we're all faking it for attention or a free ride is one I really hate.

-That if you're MI you are dangerous

-"I knew so and so with ____ and this is how horrible a person they were." Hmmm, maybe they were just a horrible person and had nothing to do with the illness? We're all different!

-Not being seen as valuable as a person....

All these things and so many more. It makes me mad.