Having feelings questioned is usually nothing new for individuals who have mental health disorders. I myself have been asked if I was making up my anxiety attacks for attention and just exaggerating or if being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder meant I was crazy. Being asked that is stigma. Uneducated questions such as those undermine anything that a person is feeling by applying negative stereotypes that are widely known for mental health disorders. But it is important to note that stigma is not a one-way street. There is stigma such as from an individual without a disorder directed at one with a disorder, whether that is intended or not, it is more commonly referred to as social stigma. Then. there is also internal stigma, more commonly known as self-perceived stigma which is the stigma in which the individual with a mental health disorder reflects upon themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world of mental health has come a long way. Treatment centers have drastically improved, the care provided has improved, however, there is still a lot to be improved. Most stigma stems from the lack of education which leads to fear of the unknown and the lack of understanding. We know this, yet stigma can still be very prominent, so what makes it so hard to change or eliminate? There is no one answer. It may come down to attitudes that have been portrayed for hundreds of years and for some reason, people are still not ready to fully let go as we have seen in other social issues. Also, while we know education is a great way to tackle the issue of stigma and talking about mental health disorders helps but it should be noted that speaking on one’s mental health disorder can be very traumatic for the individual themself if they are not at the point where they can do so yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also may come down to the fact that there are so many depths to mental health. There are individuals that may have a mental health disorder that is not necessarily visible to others because they have mastered their coping skills. But there are more severe cases of mental health of course, where the disorder may be more noticeable. This does not make one person lesser than the other, we are all still people at the end of the day. But, it makes the approach to end the stigma more difficult as what may work to eliminate stigma for anxiety disorders may not work to eliminate or lessen the stigma for a disorder such as schizophrenia because they are two different disorders and those that suffer from either of these have different needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another issue with eliminating stigma is how many do not seem to be much wrong with it. Most have heard the phrase “Just suck it up, it is just someone’s opinion.” While stigma may seem as if it is just one person speaking their mind, it often is much more. Stigma can lead to discrimination and may create self-doubt in an individual, which may then lead them to be reluctant when it comes to getting treatment. It is important for both the individual and those around them to always keep in mind that a mental health disorder does not define you. It is very possible and likely that with the right treatment, people with mental health disorders can still lead successful and meaningful lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Having feelings questioned is usually nothing new for individuals who have mental health disorders. I myself have been asked if I was making up my anxiety attacks for attention and just exaggerating or if being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder meant I was crazy. Being asked that is stigma. Uneducated questions such as those undermine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocay","category-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/05\/rsz_amelie-lazar-0hq4yp8xeow-unsplash.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh-wordpress.ramapo.edu\/SSI-2020\/collegesagainststigma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}