What mental health stigma do to some people.

Social stigma against depression is a serious issue. It prevents progress and keep individuals suffer quietly. They feel sick. But they are being left alone, sometimes, the fear of stigma put people in risk of total health failure, disability and even death.

This is a well known issue among sufferers. In fact, the problem is so wide spread that the evolving peers support movement is built on the foundation of fighting back stigma as a means for people to move forward with treatment. 

People have been locked away, drugged against their will, and administered wrong kind or wrong dosage of drugs without much management from subscribers. Side effects are severe and trans-generational. That is, a mother who take psychiatric drugs can potentially give birth to a child with life long birth defect. If the mother survive fatal or detrimental side effects in her life time, her child will have to live with disability and handicap.

Getting rid of stigma will be the beginning of timely treatment, quality care and safe medication.  People are as much become disabling by stigma as they are sick by depression.

    
Current peers support principles emphasize that in order to move along the way to recovery, one must first of all identify the many faults and disadvantages brought about by conventional mental health methods and society. Claims by health care professionals which say such things as:

• mentally ill,
• mentally incapacity,
• brain dysfunction, and
• gene expression of illness 

are false because they don't have much scientific proofs. 

Although these claims have been written in text book formats, conclusive experimental observations on people have not been done.

Current mental health claims imply that depression is the outer aspect of an inner more permanent brain condition. And the reality shows that depression is NOT permanent, especially for those people who can trace their distress to previous adversary life situations. There are changes in life that give people a hard time, and those who have the skills and resources to overcome the effect of such changes do survive through them.

Suffer become victims of stigma not because they believe them. Their fears are the result of prejudice they experience or know of others who do. However, false claims can lead people to what positive psychologist Martin Seligman calls "learned helplessness," repeated experience of having no power. They see that life will never get better in any way, that they can't accomplish anything.  They give up their power for self sufficiency and just give in to whatever being prescribed for them.

It has been shown that people who fail to sustain through an unfortunate event the first time may still recover from such distress by acquiring skills and resources similar to those who readily succeed their hardships.

Being able to see through the pitfalls of wrongful labels helps people focus on dealing with their treatment rather than exhausting their energy on the stigma associated with mental health. 

Treating depression saves lives.

• New Survey Data shows -only 1 in 5 young adults believes that people sympathize those with Mental Health Problems
• SAMHA research shows -that young adults between 18-25 of age who should be the healthiest are at greatest risk of suffering from mental health issues.

Yet, people seldom get help.  They think that people just don't care. They are sure that people will  hate and oust them once they come out with a mental illness. Those who share their health information report that they do lose half of the people who used to be around them. 

As far as I see it, those who will abandon you once learning about your illness need to go. Why would you want to keep them. If they are against your health, they are against you. When it comes to taking care of your health, why would you care whether or not OTHER people care? 



However, many folks do care. 

My moto is, even if nobody cares, you should care. It's your happiness, your health and your future.

Post updated 4/16/2013