The Stigma Enveloping Mental Illness

By Juhi Gautam

In this fast-growing world with fast-growing human needs, there is one thing that is reducing faster than anything else, mental health. With decreasing mental health come the pre-established notions and stigma that strangle the little hope and confidence that the person tries to build within oneself leaving that person devoid of any hope.

What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘cancer’ or ‘tuberculosis’ or perhaps ‘HIV/AIDS’? Hold that thought and now take note of what comes to your mind when you hear words like ‘depression’, ‘anxiety’ or ‘bipolar disorder’. You might make a point that the former ones are life-threatening while that the latter ones aren’t. This is where the problem lies. The former ones have tendencies to take someone’s life while the latter ones can simply make the life that you live a nightmare for you. A lot of people in our society believe that people who ‘claim’ to be depressed or are dealing with some sort of mental ailment are nothing but mere attention seekers. This makes it extremely difficult for people suffering at hand of this ignorant populace to be able to seek medical help, because evidently, mental health problems are looked down upon or rather stigmatized.

Prejudice against people who are suffering from mental health problems doubly wreck them. They are already dealing with a lot and struggling to fit in when people, with their discourteous remarks or actions create an imaginary line between themselves and our underrated yet lionhearted heroes. Discrimination and stigma against people with mental illness is so prevalent and is deeply

rooted within our whole societal structure to an extent that terms pertaining to mental disorders are used as swear or curse words in order to inflict insult at the other person you may not like or might be having a tiff with. The fact that these terms are enough to make a person feel insulted or humiliated speaks enough of how lowly we think of people with mental health ailments.

People who are subjected to insults and are treated differently just because of a health issue- the only ‘fault’ (according to the society) being that it is concerned with the brain- face a lot of other problems in addition to the one that they are already fighting. They start preferring to stay indoors and isolated because

meeting new people poses a new challenge to them, because apparently, people with mental illness don’t deserve to mix up with the ‘normal’ (ironically abnormally acting) crowd. They start to doubt their capabilities and dodge opportunities that might come their way just because of the toxicant by the name of ‘inferiority complex’ that steals away all the possibilities of a wholesome, better future.

Most people believe that people with mental illness should be maintained distance with because they have destructive mindsets and harmful tendencies. Such ideas have been propagated because of unmindful media coverage and films. Certain companies and institutions even feel reluctant in hiring people who are suffering from mental health problems or have had any past of mental illness. This simply leads to social exclusion and a hindrance of opportunities.

The need of the hour is to make this world- for people suffering from mental health disorders- a better place to live in. We all owe it to humanity, we all owe it to us who consider ourselves immensely righteous. It is time for us to exhibit that righteousness we claim to have it running in our veins. Let’s use our voices to bring about a positive and necessary change in the society rather that bringing about violence and chaos. They say pen is mightier than sword, so let’s use our pens to bring about awareness and teach the upcoming minds about how venomous stigmatizing mental health issues can be.

At an individual level, it is all of our responsibility to make it easier for people to express themselves freely without fearing judgement and at the same time, being able to speak to a trusted person ourselves, if ever we feel we need help.

Time is constantly changing, and so is the mentality and mindset of people. Let’s choose empowerment over ignominy now, let’s own up to how ‘imperfectly perfect’ all of us are and let’s celebrate the fact that we all still have enough power in our fists to be able to bring about a change in the society, for the better. So that we can proudly say that we are evolving now, and this time, NOT backwards.

By Juhi Gautam