What Is Mental Health Stigma?

We live in a world where even a slight cut can make us rush to the first aid kit, but shall never be ready to walk beside a person if he is going through a hard time or, to put it bluntly, has a mental illness. Mental health is still a topic ridden with taboo, stereotypes and stigma. People with mental illness still shy away from talking about it or even accepting it! In a world where mental health stigma is endemic, let's understand what this mental health stigma is, because comprehension of the problem is important and crucial if we are to find a solution to it!

What Is Mental Health Stigma?

The word ?stigma’ is used when someone views you in a negative way because you have a distinguishing characteristic, illness, way of behaving etc.

In case of mental illness, mental health stigma means the discrimination against people on the basis of one's mental health condition. People see it as a spot on their individuality and make them feel like aliens.

According to a report of The Live Love Life Foundation, in India, 47 percent of people consider mental illness as a social stigma, while 87 percent people associate it with serious diseases. 9 out of 10 people with mental illness perceive stigma and discrimination negatively which makes their condition worse. Plus, they also struggle with having personal development.

But where does all this stigmatisation come from? Is it deep rooted in our society or is it a foreign concept? Let's find out.

Why Does Stigma Exist?

While on one hand physical health is given extreme importance, people mostly underestimate mental health. Instead of digging for information, people ignore the topic which results in misinterpretation, myths, lack of understanding around what mental illness really is and perpetuates stereotypes that have been going on in the society for years.

There are several factors which give rise to the mental health stigma. Some of the main causes are as follows:

● Several studies show that stigma usually arises from lack of awareness, lack of education, lack of perception, and the nature and complications of mental illness, for example odd behaviours and violence (Arboleda-Florez, 2002[5]).

● People mostly learn about mental illness through the media. Media contributes to mental illness stigma through the exaggerated, inaccurate, and comical images they use to portray people with psychiatric disorders as well as providing incorrect information about mental illness.

● A strikingly large percentage of participants (97%) believed that stigma was caused by a lack of awareness about schizophrenia, followed by the nature of the illness itself (73%).

● Stereotypes like people with mental illness are dangerous, short-tempered, and lack manners etc.

● Portrayal of violent exaggerated events performed by a mental illness person in news instead of telling the whole side of the story.

● Myths like depression recovers with time, treatment is not required.

● Over-explosion in the age of social media where people who lack the understanding of what constitutes depression or any other mental illness trivialises the issue.

Why is it stigmatised?

To know the roots of stigmatisation, it is important to know the history to know where it started from.

In ancient scripture, Arth-veda mentions that mental illness may result from divine curses. Majorly in early India, people with mental disorders were considered as individuals whose bodies were captivated by evil spirits or demons. For this, in the name of treatment, patients were dragged in the temples and priests performed some mantras in order to cure them, which is totally illogical if we see from a medical point of view. Beginning in the 13th century, women with mental illness began to be persecuted as witches. With time, these absurd beliefs began to fade, but still many people are unaware of the crucial topic. Hence, people with mental illness are shamed and stigmatised. Due to this, many people keep their psychiatric treatment private, which is fair. It is majorly due to lack of understanding and awareness that has let the world remain in the dark about the issue at stake. Sometimes, it's also the trivialisation of the issue that has added to ignorance and non-acceptance.

Examples of Mental Stigma

When a person is called by different words such as ?dangerous’, ?violent’, ?psycho’, etc. instead of saying person dealing with this particular mental illness, it is an example of stigma. These labels perpetuate and reinforce stigma.

People with depression become easy subjects of mockery and are accused of ?seeking attention’ when they discuss their illness. People with anxiety are called overly sensitive and emotionally weak over small things.

Stigma can be found in our households when parents advise their kids to stay away from people with any kind of mental illness.

In offices, if an employee comes out as mentally ill, he/she is labelled as unfit, even for small tasks.

Friends casually calling each other ?crazy’, ?idiot’, ?dumb’ and more such derogatory phrases in an attempt to joke is actually insulting because it is related to mental illness. And anything related to a person's health, physical or mental, should be a concern rather than a joke.

Every day is a battle. And it's always your battle. What others can do for you is provide support, accept you as you are and just be there. This doesn't make the battle or the process easy, but makes you stronger to deal with it when you know you aren't alone. But with the prevailing stigma, this support or acceptance is difficult to seek. Bluntt provides you the platform to break the bias, speak your mind and heart and be blunt! Let's break the stereotypes together!

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