Mental illness has been a taboo topic since the beginning of time. Finally, in 2022, mental health is being brought into more conversations, but are we truly breaking its stigma? Of course, it’s extremely important to talk about and normalize mental health, but there still seems to be stigma lingering within the in-between, even when it feels like we’ve made such big strides to destigmatize it.
Inarguably, we are way more open to talking about mental illness than in past decades when there wasn’t even a term to describe mental health. Specifically, anxiety and depression are a lot more normalized in our conversations and in the media nowadays. When you think about it, this isn’t surprising — around 19% of people suffer from anxiety and around 8% of people have suffered from at least one depressive episode. Considering this, it makes sense why more commonly experienced mental illnesses are starting to break through the stigma. Although these are the more common mental health disorders, they are still very real and potentially devastating to deal with. This is where breaking the stigma can at times become a double-edged sword — we want to normalize talking about these conditions, but we also don’t want to romanticize very real mental health struggles. Although anxiety for some may be very tolerable and fairly easy to treat, a lot of people may feel paralyzed by their anxiety. That doesn’t mean one’s struggles aren’t real, it is just acknowledging that everyone has a different experience, especially different from what may be scripted in the media we consume.
There are a lot of ugly parts of mental health that aren’t talked about, which can be especially damaging to view through media, particularly for children and young adults. Depression for some can mean not getting out of bed for days, not showering, bad coping mechanisms, and a plethora of other effects. Since mental health is frequently portrayed inaccurately on TV or social media, oftentimes mental illnesses may be overgeneralized to feelings that may just simply be feelings — stress does not always mean anxiety, and sadness does not always mean depression. TikTok in particular often has videos where thousands of users may self-diagnose themselves, which can also be dangerous for plenty of reasons. Of course, it’s great to have mental health not be a taboo anymore, but when it’s being so inaccurately represented, is that really even helpful?
When thinking about the stigma around mental health, currently this still mainly focuses on the disorders I’ve talked about above — anxiety and depression. Not to say that these should be disregarded in any way, but there are many mental illnesses that are still extremely stigmatized and left out of lots of mental health awareness campaigns, like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and more. Breaking the mental health stigma means including all mental illnesses, not just the most common ones.
So what does breaking the stigma around mental health actually look like? Right now, there are many social barriers in order for people to receive help, so while accessible mental health treatment is important, we also need to have a societal understanding of these treatments. All parts of mental illness need to be socially accepted, including therapy and medication. Having open and honest conversations about mental health is also a crucial step that cannot be forgotten. There are many organizations with the mission to destigmatize mental health like Active Minds, which focuses on young adults by having chapters at high schools and colleges across the country to change the conversation around mental health.
This article isn’t meant to be completely pessimistic about the significant progress we have made towards destigmatizing mental health, but to rather shine a light on the missteps along the way and how we can all improve. Mental health is a complicated but important topic, and we can all always learn more.
Mental Health Resources:
Suicide Hotline: 800-273-8255, CCPH (UMass): (413) 545-2337
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