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Social Stigma
Written by Chloe on Friday, May 7, 2010
A few evenings ago during a commercial break, there came on television an ad whose purpose was to raise awareness about reducing the social stigma of mental illness. I was truly shocked. It never occurs to me that such a stigma still exists.
Sure, I am aware at some level that it is out there, but I never have any direct experience of it. No doubt there are numerous factors working in my favor here.
For starters I have no sense of stigma about it myself. A lot of things probably contribute to this. I have introspective familiarity with mental illness. Both of my parents were mentally ill. In fact it runs rampant in the family. One of my cousins committed suicide. My father was a psychotherapist. I’ve been seeing psychotherapists for more than thirty years. A majority of my friends are mentally ill. I work in a psychiatric hospital. Where’s the stigma? It’s just the every day experience of myself, my friends, relatives and coworkers.
Why do I never experience being stigmatised because of my mental illnesses? Well, I think the only obvious signs of mental illness that I regularly display are querky OCD behaviours. It is true that sometimes people find this annoying; well, extremely annoying on occasion. But for the most part people just find it amusingly eccentric. Okay, I cry a lot too; but that is not a sign of mental illness in my opinion. I don’t think twice about telling anybody that I take Prozac, or whatever else comes up appropriately in conversation. Such things are no big deal.
There are other things about me that might carry some social stigma. I am a lesbian, and I’m intersexed. But again, while I’m vaguely aware of these things being stigmatised, it’s not something that I directly experience. I’m completely open about them and it’s just not a problem. Didn’t these stigmas disappear somewhere in the dark ages? I don’t get it anyway. How can one stigmatise reality? It just is what it is. People are different from each other. If some folks don’t understand that, they are living in la la land. How could there possibly be anything inherently "good" or "bad" about being a lesbian or being intersexed?
Which brings me to BIID. Jenny recently brought up the issue of handling the social stigma of BIID. I think I handle it by pretending that it doesn’t exist. Or is it a pretence? I’m reminded of the movie "The Matrix", which I saw again recently. The first time I saw it I thought it was a cool science fiction movie with an ingenious premise. Each subsequent time I see it, the metaphor of the human condition hits me more and more deeply. For me, the most memorable line of the movie is "There is no spoon". In a literal interpretation of the movie it is simply a statement of fact; but a fact so mind boggling that it makes one see reality in a completely different way. I love the bumper sticker "QUESTION REALITY".
So… "There is no stigma". That’s what I tell myself. What exactly is the danger of being completely open about BIID? Nobody is going to kill me for it. After all, nobody has killed me for being a lesbian (yet). I know that I’m not going to be socially ostracised. I’ve already told around a hundred people about BIID (IRL), with a 99% success rate. A large majority of my friends and family know about it. I have an extensive social support network.
The worst that could possibly happen at work is that I’ll get fired. But then I’m already looking for another job in any case. Am I going to disclose about it at a job interview? No, probably not. But then I also wouldn’t consider it appropriate to disclose that I’m a mentally ill intersexed lesbian. I wouldn’t consider it appropriate to be asked about such things either. What if it came up later? Well hey, I’ve already got away with an ambiguous gender presentation in years past. Why not this?
Yesterday I mentioned to Alicia that I seem ready to be more public about BIID. Not that I would deliberately seek it out, just that if the circumstance arose I would not run away from it. She was very encouraging about it. A year ago she would have discouraged me from doing such a thing, but now it’s different. We have both been finding our paths. She recently went public with something of her own; a very tough decision.
What is it going to take? It will take me truly believing that there is no stigma. Sometimes, just sometimes, if one believes something strongly enough it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; and one can make it so.
Tags: BIID, Mental Illness, Metaphor, Reality, Stigma
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13 Comments
The stigma from mental illness is huge. It can keep you from getting a job. It can keep you from holding onto a job. Even though I have a history of depression, I have to admit even I avoid people who had a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
I get stigmatized a lot just due to the fact that my mental illness is blatantly obvious and the results cover my arms …
A lot of people find me “staring at them” I always laugh because I’m not staring at them. One of the “side effects” of schizophrenia is essentially “day dreaming” though … Not quite. See – I “zone out” essentially, I cant think of the term >.< OH! Dissociate. And that causes me to “stare” but I’m not staring at anything. My mind just kind of shuts down and people think I’m staring at them. Its just like … Dont flatter yourself.
Unfortunately stigmatism DOES still exist to the point of … Even though its illegal – some people will even refuse the mentally ill a place to live in the cases of “I’m the landlord. Whatever I say goes”
Some people even lose their jobs over mental illness in the US which is total BS because the Americans with Disabilities acts protects you against this =/ But they find ways around it – essentially finding faults or even coming down to “We dont have the hours”
Its complete and utter BS but people still do it and it happens everyday …
@Sophie
Ha .. Yeah >.> I can assure them I cant magically make Schizophrenia go away through shear will power X_X
@Gordo: Yes, that is exactly the commercial I saw. Thank you so much for putting up the link so that people can see what inspired the post.
When I see those people in the T-shirts with the names of the mental illnesses, what comes to mind is simply that it looks like a very typical cross-section of my friends.
@Sylvie: I have several close friends with bipolar disorder. What is it about such people that would make you uncomfortable? I’m not being judgmental, just curious.
@Sophie: I wouldn’t discount willpower as a useful tool for helping to treat some mental illnesses. It was pretty much the only tool available to me for climbing out of severe social anxiety disorder. That particular disorder precludes seeking help from a mental health care professional, or talking to anybody else about it for that matter.
It has also been useful for helping with OCD when it was much more severe than it is now. The only way I was able to stop myself from turning light switches on and off continuously was through a sheer act of will.
To think that it is a cure-all just seems like naivety though.
@Rhayven: If I saw your scars I would immediately want to give you a big hug. How is it that some people can miss out on acquiring compassion?
@Chloe
Thank you ^^; Oh – Have you ever tried meditation as a means to help with mental illness? It can be very effective <33
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1 On 7 May, 2010, Sophie said:
My parents still think most mental illnesses can be cured through willpower alone…what does that say about social stigma? lol