Sexism, racism, homophobia … these are strong words that trigger strong responses. Many people feel, very deeply and strongly, that these things are simply wrong, and the views and actions associated with these words are seen almost as crimes. However, what about stigma around mental illnesses? It seems that it is only viewed as “not very nice”. Therefore, it is important for us to realize that stigma, like the three other words, also cause hurt feelings, injustices, and wounds in people’s hearts. Let us not dismiss the mental health stigma as only “being a bit mean”. Attitude is the first step to change. An important step to eliminating stigma is to realize how wrong it is and changing attitudes from the core.
Sometimes one thing can be described in multiple ways, and the way that we talk about something, whether it is to others or to ourselves, can significantly affect how we feel about the situation. For example, if someone often loses in a game, there is a big difference between saying “He loses” and “He is a loser”. In the first case, we are describing the person’s actions, but in the latter case, we are putting a label on him and who he is. Since we are not defined by any singular action, we should not label ourselves or others in such a way. Similarly, in the case of mental illnesses, it can be considered insensitive to say that someone is a schizophrenic rather than to say that he/she is struggling with schizophrenia, or saying that someone is psychotic as opposed to saying he/she is experiencing symptoms of psychosis. Perhaps distinguishing between describing a situation and labeling a person appears to be a nit-picky thing to do. However, the reality is that much of the stigma that remains around mental illnesses are related to the ways that mental health is talked about, in both casual conversations and written words. Therefore, it is very important that we pay attention to what we say so that we do not end up saying things in a way that we do not mean or put labels on people simply because of poor wording.
Written by Jenny Li