What's your opinion on mental illness and stigmas?
by 
Claudine Goffinet
ANSWERS: 12
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I think that nobody should judge people with a mental illness. I have lost a lot of friends over the fact that I have Borderline Personality Disorder. They only left because of the image the name brought with it, not my behaviour. I know people that have everything from ADHD to Schizophrenia, and I know that they are great people. It's not their fault. Besides, I would say close to 100% of the population will experience some type of psychological issue in their life.
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The stigmas are unfair and are based on ancient beliefs and misinformation. My son is schizo-affective and (when on meds) is no different than anyone else. It's completely unfair that when you try to discuss it with anyone they appear scared, or horrified. I mean he's not a serial killer for crying out loud - he is ILL. :-/
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I think we are all carzy in different ways. Who is say what is normal. I think people should relax and stop judgeing people so harshly. Stigmas don't help anyone.
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Mental illness covers a broad range of issues. I've been diagnosed with a few, but none that are not treatable (depression, PTSD, hyperanxiety). I am a functional person though. I've never had a problem talking about it. And I have not seen anyone treat me differently after telling them.
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Its ashame that people are categorised you cannot always tell someone has a mental illness and they can lead a perfectly normal life with it! As someone recently diagnosed with a mental illness my views have probably changed dramatically but hey im normal (arent I)
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There certainly are chemical imbalances that can occur in the brain that can cause true mental illness. Unfortunately, a lot of the time improper diagnosis prevents the correct care for certain kinds of mental illness.
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Like cancer, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, diabetes, appendicitis, and a million other illnesses, mental illnesses cannot be helped, are never asked for nor deserved, are very distressing and inconvenient, and difficult to treat, let alone cure. Like most illnesses mental illness is exacerbated by stress...and sometimes initially triggered by extreme stress or accumulated stressors. Unlike most other illnesses, people with mental illness are often shunned, dismissed, emotionally tortured,and blamed for their condition. I believe that is a leftover from hundreds of years of ignorance....and religious persecution (Possessed by the Devil!)...and fear of the unknown. To this day, many of those who are not mentally ill erroneously believe that if "they just take their pills and snap out of it", they'd be fine. It's getting better...but we have a long way to go, baby!
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The same as any other illness, it is very sad and the person needs professional help
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it is very nice to see so many open opinions on the matter. We all experience some psychological issues, from PTSD to schizophrenia to General Anxiety. The gravity of it - the degree , makes one more prone to having problems with general life (and needing meds to keep him/her on the right track) whilst others experience temporary distress. The person struggles through the stages of denial .... to acceptance. The people around struggle just the same way except they are not in the person's head and therefore need explanation or a translation of what the person feels. "Mom they are out to get me" >>>> "Mom I'm having paranoid thought" It takes a lot of energy and patience, but it's worth while. Stress, as suzycue mentionned IS a major factor to triggering our symptoms and episodes. So we cope how we can and hope for people to understand. The ones that do not want to, I personally take them of my list of friends as I need to have a circle of friends that I can help and trust.... my little imput... comments welcome!
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I have several of them, thank you.
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I have been a mental health consumer since I was in early 20's and now that I'm 49, I feel I have educated myself in what the mental health system is. I was never understood and most of the workers labeled me. I did have depression as I approached my 20's and now I am well on my toward recovey from whatever anxiety, depression, and OCD personality that the workers picked up. I believe the mental health field is trial and error, abstract, and in my case, I like recovery model because it gives me hope. I can read articles and books that the workers read and even have textbooks on psychiatry and sociology. I do not like the exaggerations that I see has happened. No one can see your thoughts or feelings. In summary, I cannot relate to many stories but believe in an individual model of psychology. Every person is unique. Also, doctors tend to form impressions of me and make me have the problems they say I have.
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Stigma makes people with draw even more then the illness its self does Its a horrible thing.
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