Stigma Surrounding Mental Health; What gets in the Way?

What is mental health stigma?

The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health describes mental health stigma as “a cluster of negative attitudes and beliefs that motivate the general public to fear, avoid, and discriminate against people with mental illnesses.” This type of stigma has been around even as early as the Greek Dark Ages and the Medieval and Renaissance periods in Europe. Back then, people believed that demonic possession caused mental illnesses.

Unfortunately, mental health stigma persists today. In a national Canadian poll, it revealed that 51% of Canadians think that people with mental illnesses experience “a lot” of stigmas and discrimination. Such disorders are even considered taboo in some cultures like Asian and African American communities where mental health disorder is considered as weakness or failure.

Stigma is a set of negative beliefs and prejudices about a group of people. It also includes negative behaviours towards individuals. Many people face stigma because of their race, religion sexuality, gender, economic situation, and a variety of other factors. People who experience mental health, often face stigma and discrimination. This can bring up feelings of shame, hopeless, distress, embarrassment, reluctance to get help, or accept support and feel like they are to blame for how they are feeling and interacting with the world.   

About forty years ago, mental health was not well understood. We did not have the knowledge of how it can impact the community the brain, or the affects of people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

To continue to end the stigma and misunderstanding around mental health, we hope that people begin to understand mental health in a different way. Such as a psychological injury, which are similar to other physical health conditions. We cannot fix something using intellectual sayings such as, “just think positively and your diabetes will go away."  How many times have you heard? 

Don’t feel bad, try to be happy! 

Time heals all wounds!

Replace the loss! 

Be strong for others! 

You have so many good things in your life, focus on that!

Keep busy!

The stigma people experience often prevents them from getting support from family, friends, and professionals. We know from research that the sooner someone gets professional support and treatment, the better the outcome will be. This is true for all health conditions including mental illnesses. 

How can we reduce stigma and help people access the psychological supports they need?

• Be aware and mindful of language. Try avoiding using intellectual comments to “fix” someone.

• Think about and discuss what you see in the media. How are people with mental health represented? It is not always accurate, misrepresented, or fair.  

• To learn more about mental health, you can search up podcasts, documentaries, or read peer reviewed articles online.

• Explore relationships with people in your life with mental health challenges and illnesses. If they are comfortable, ask them what their experience has been like (as everyone and their lives are unique). What they might need from you and how you can support them. 

Think about one thing you can do now to help reduce stigma around mental health. It could be a small thing like watching a Youtube video on mental health (by Gabor Mate; who is one of our favourites) and avoiding labelling words. Or it could be reaching out to someone who you think might be struggling and seeing how they are doing and what they might need from you as a support person.