What can be done to eliminate the stigma of mental illness in this country?

Question

What carries the stigma? Is it like racism? How is it learned? Is it because of the hush hush attitude?

Answer 1

We eliminate it by talking about it openly. People are not ashamed of heart disease, so why should I feel ashamed of having a disease of my brain? Ooooh, because for a long time people thought that will power could overcome chemistry, riiiight.
Yeah, I talk about it, and openly.

I'm a depressive who will not tolerate people trying to tell me that I'm mentally weak, or anything else along those lines.
I educate them, as in, "yes, I have a disorder, it occurs in my thinking and feeling organ, so naturally those parts of me are affected".

Answer 2

Terms like crazy, loco, nuts, psycho all contribute to the stigma. Mental illness is a medical condition and one that is not accepted since so many people still think its a weakness. You cannot just pull yourself up by your boot straps when you are depressed. You can't just snap out of it. To erase the stigma we need EDUCATION. We need influential people to step up and say they have mental illness. Tipper Gore admitted she had depression. Mike Wallace (60 minutes) admitted to depression. We need more magazine articles, TV shows, Talk about mental illness. It has to become a mainstream illness. Aids used to have a stigma (gays and drug users) but unfortunately AIDS has become an equal opportunity illness. Mental illness is an equal opportunity illness to. Its not rich, poor, black, white, old, young. It can affect anybody. We need EDUCATION, even among health care providers. I am an RN who has Bipolar illness and I see the discrimination every day at work with any pt. that carries a dx. of mental illness. I am ashamed to admit it but they get treated differently than someone with out. Dr's and nurses don't give people with mental illness as much credibly as others because they are nuts so their complaints aren't as real.

Answer 3

wider education sure would help...the fact is people are scared of what they dont know, if we taught people on how to deal with this issue, and how to cope with people who have it, it would be a better place for all of us, with more understading of what we now dont know much about. i myself have a metal illness but chose not to disclose this fact to many, including employers, because of this unfair stigma surrounding it. there is more and more money and time being put into finding not a cure, but at least an answer to all the unanswered questions we as victims have.

the more education there is, the more accepting people will be. i think the main reason people dont understand it and are afraid of it is because they dont know, and because they cant SEE it, like alot of other illnesses.

i for one hope that in the future there is more understading and acceptance so people like me can stop hiding in the dark, the place that makes it all so much worse.

Answer 4

there's a stigma because it's not understood by people in general. even some mental illnesses are not well understood by doctors. if we are taught to be accepting of differences, and taught about circumstances in life that makes us different, i think the stigma will finally start to lift, but it will take a VERY long time.

Answer 5

You cannot expect people to fight in wars and go through crises and expect them to be sain. You cannot have a drug crisis in America and expect people to be sain,And we cannot have a government that is greedy and expect people to be sain.If it were race,we would all be insane. SINCE WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT RACES.