Mental Illness: Stop the Stigma ~ Life Unanswered

Intro to Mental Health

What is Mental Illness?

Mental illness covers a wide range of mental health conditions: disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior. Some can be temporary in nature, while others can be life long. Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors. As with anything that is not well understood, there is a lot of fear and judgement of mental illness. Changing our perspective and educating ourselves on mental health can go a long way in ending the stigma.

What Causes Mental Illness

Mental illness can be caused by environmental stresses, genetic factors and biochemical imbalances. Usually it is caused by a combination of these. Environmental stresses can be work or relationship stress, loss of a loved one, or traumatic events. Even moving can lead to mental health concerns. Unfortunately genetics play a role too, people whose parents have a history of mental illness are more likely to suffer from them as well. Finally, biochemical imbalances. Our brains are a very intricate and complicated network. For many, mental illness is just the result of a this intricate system malfunctioning.

How is Mental Illness Treated?

Mental illness is usually best treated with a combination of medication and cognitive therapy. Medications work to regulate the chemicals that may be causing your symptoms. They can increase some chemicals, decrease others and adjust how your brain processes those chemicals.

Therapy works on addressing the problems and possible origin as well as finding effective coping mechanisms. Therapy can be a safe place to vent all your seemingly irrational thoughts. You should be able to talk through how you really feel about things without someone else’s opinion or judgement. Counselors and therapists can also help you to identify everyday triggers and how to deal with them without feeling overwhelmed or out of control. Some therapies even work on changing our thinking habits by consciously redirecting your thoughts away from fear, anxiety and other negative thoughts to more rational and affirming thoughts.

Due to the intricate nature of the brain, finding the right combination of therapies usually requires some trial and error. Some people don’t like the idea of taking medications, others don’t like how they feel on them or just don’t see the point. But it really is essential to follow your doctor’s orders and communicate any concerns you may have about medication. It’s best if you and your doctor work together, the medications can only go so far, so the rest is up to you. As with many other health conditions regular sleep, a healthy diet and exercise can go a long way to improving your mental health.

Stigma

External Stigma

When we think about stigma, the first type that usually comes to mind is external stigma. Essentially this comes down to anything we hear from the people around us, what we see in the media and the behaviors of people after they find out you have a mental illness.

The way in which we talk about mental illness can have a much larger reach than we realize. Often, we don’t know who around us might be dealing with a mental health condition either personally or with a loved one. Psychological disorders are commonly used as a reason for someone’s bad behavior. And disorders like bipolar and OCD are mentioned flippantly in conversations, minimizing the reality of these serious disorders.

Common Misconceptions

Someone with OCD is not just a person who is extra clean and tidy. While OCD can range in severity, most do not enjoy these “benefits” of the condition. Bipolar disorder is not just someone who’s a little moody or changes plans quickly. Left untreated, the swings from manic to depressive states can seriously impact a person’s life. And contrary to popular belief these swings usually don’t occur in just a few hours. On the same note, when treated correctly, people with bipolar can lead perfectly normal lives. Depression isn’t a character flaw or something you can just snap out of. We often associate depression with feeling sad, or crying and sleeping a lot. But some people with depression may actually seem happier than most. And finally, anxiety isn’t just nail biting and panic attacks. Perfectionism and procrastination can both be signs of anxiety.

I could go on for quite some time about these common misconceptions, but instead I’ll refer you to someone who has already talked about it:

Juliette Virzi wrote a great article on the common things people say and the reasons why they are hurtful to those with mental health conditions: https://themighty.com/2018/08/what-not-to-say-support-mental-illness/

Internal Stigma

The second type of stigma is internal stigma. This kind comes from our own thoughts and internal dialogue. One of the many symptoms of mental illness are thoughts of judgement, isolation and worthlessness. Stigma can lead people to believe that they are out of control, or weak, or too sensitive, or even attention seeking. When you pair the internal negative dialogue and perception with the outside stigma, it becomes very difficult for people to get the help that they need.

The Effects of Stigma

Referencing the infographic above from NAMI.org: while 1 in 5 Americans experience a mental illness, nearly 60% didn’t receive treatment in the previous year. Many Americans suffer in silence while many others remain unaware that what they are experiencing are signs of mental illness.

Lack of treatment and fear

The lack of treatment for these disorders not only impacts the lives of those with them but our society as a whole. Untreated mental illness costs our country money, it impacts productivity at work, effects romantic relationships, leads to homelessness and increases the risk for other health conditions.

Due to the stigma of mental illness we tend to avoid talking about it. And when we avoid talking about issues we tend to lack understanding, and that leads us to fear. We fear having mental health concerns, we fear getting help with our mental health and we fear being around those with mental illness.

The media

The media tends to latch on to the information of a suspect or criminal having a mental illness and then tries to portray those with mental health concerns as volatile and dangerous. The reality is that those with mental illness are far more likely to inflict self-harm or to be the victims of attack. It’s easy to use mental illness as a blanket reason for a person’s senseless act, but this only perpetuates the idea that those with mental health concerns could become dangerous at any time.

Language

Hearing a friend, coworker or family member joke about mental illness or casually attach a diagnosis to a singular bad behavior. This can cause people to feel that they are a joke and that they would be ostracized and made fun of if anyone were to find out what they were dealing with. Consider how common it is for us to refer to the weather as bipolar, or say “what a schizo” to someone acting strange or call ourselves OCD for liking things straight and orderly.

Medical Care

Patients with mental health concerns are aware that they could be treated differently by doctors and medical staff. So they tend to avoid mentioning the medications they are taking and the mental health diagnosis attached to them. This puts these patients at risk for serious drug interactions and inaccurate treatment.

In the workplace

Mental illness can affect both getting a job and keeping one. It can be difficult to explain time off for mental health days or recurrent trips to a therapist or doctor; specially without “being found out”. Fluctuations in attitude or productivity can lead to tension with the boss and team members. Those with mental illness can sometimes have gaps in their work history, leaving them with 2 options in an interview: 1) Lie about the reason for the gap 2) Be honest and risk not getting hired because of stigma. These are just a couple of the reasons some people with mental illness end up homeless.

In the end, stigma can impact every aspect of a person’s life. It’s hard to deal with a mental illness, sometimes it can be a battle just to get out of bed. But these added obstacles and judgements from the world around us can make some people feel that there is just no escape, that it will never get better and that the universe is working against them. Sadly, the worst effect of mental illness coupled with stigma is suicide (the 10th leading cause of death in America). If you or someone you know is talking about or considering suicide, please reach out to someone or click on the link/call the phone number below to speak with someone. Your life matters and I promise there is another way to ease the pain.

How to Help

Education/Discussion

What can be done about stigma and its impact on us? We need to talk about it. The more we discuss these issues the more normal and less scary they become. Fact is, that most of us will experience some form of mental illness at some point in our lives. Mental illness isn’t a weakness and is honestly no different than any other health concern. Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide and yet we don’t talk about it.

Opening the discussion of mental health/illness allows us to better educate ourselves and others. Most mental illnesses are much more complicated than the stereotypes would suggest. Knowing the more subtle signs of mental health concerns can help you or someone else get the help they need, before it gets worse.

While not all mental health conditions are curable, most are highly manageable with the right support and treatment. If we bring these conditions out into the open less people will feel isolated and alone and less shame in getting the care that they need.

Support (For a Friend/Loved One)

If you suspect or want to support a loved one who might be dealing with mental illness, the best thing you can do is be there for them. Send a quick text message or call just to check in and see how they are doing. Let them know that you are concerned and/or available to talk if they need to. It may seem small but simply being available and listening to your loved one can make a world of difference.

Check out the wonderful resources that I linked throughout this page. These are trustworthy sources to learn more about mental health conditions, warning signs, treatment and much more.

1-800-273-8255 https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

https://www.nami.org/stigmafree

https://themighty.com/2018/08/what-not-to-say-support-mental-illness/