Stigma From Within Mental Health

Image courtesy of Theeradech Sanin at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My Perspective
I am unsure if I mentioned this before, but I currently work at the crisis hotline and a student in-training to be a therapist. I am passionate about helping those who are going through a rough time or assisting people who want to learn more about themselves, to improve and maintain their mental health. Myself included. I figured those who enter the helping field, including physicians, are invested in helping their clients/patients without judgment. Turns out, I’m wrong.

Reality Check
Recently, I was confronted with information that unnerved me: those who work in mental health and medicine also stigmatize mental illness and suicide. That really shook my core because there is nothing wrong or shameful about experiencing symptoms of a mental illness. It’s a part of our overall health. Engaging in unhealthy or unsafe coping skills or expressing suicidal thoughts is not a crime, but a symptom of an underlying problem that needs to be addressed, not shamed. Stigma about suicide, self-harm, and mental illness that is present in mental health and medicine mirrors the stigma found in the community. Physicians who perceived those with mental illness poorly would be uncomfortable seeking mental health services for themselves.¹

What Can We Do?
We need to keep talking about mental health, mental illness, and suicide in our communities. We need to continue educating the community, including our health care providers, about suicide to decrease its “scary” factor. Schedule a QPR or ASSIST training for your organization to learn more about suicide. And we need to continue taking care of ourselves, seeking help from therapists and psychiatrists when needed, and caring for our friends, loved ones, and coworkers. By talking about suicide and mental illness, we can end the shame and promote getting help.

References
1. Corrigan, P.W., Mittal, D., Reaves, C. M., Haynes, T. F., Han, X., Morris, S., and Sullivan, G. (2014). Mental health stigma and primary health care decisions. Psychiatry Research, 218, p. 35-38.