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THE STIGMA AND SHAME OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Copyright c 2018 Renee D. Warring

Some people do not value me. There are times that I wish I could be invisible. Many people who stigmatize those with mental health diagnosis do not know why they do it. I believe the reasons are as follows: 1) It is a learned behavior that people acquire from their families; 2) some people have inferiority complexes and must posture themselves to be superior to someone else; 3) people stigmatize out of ignorance and fear.

I tried to get a volunteer job in a non-profit organization. I wanted to do something simple, like filing. The director of the agency saw that I had some sort of condition because my hands trembled and I walked slowly. He asked me what my disability was and then proceeded to tell me why I could not work in his office. That was definitely discrimination! 

From March 2008 to February 2009, I volunteered for food preparation at a rescue mission. I could certainly work quickly too! The food preparation team put food on 45-80 plates within 20 minutes. I must say that the director of the non-profit organization missed out on having an excellent and dedicated worker on his staff!

I found out through experience that many people who do not know me tend to treat me with disrespect when they find out that I have schizoaffective disorder. My mother told me not to tell anyone about my mental health diagnosis. She said that “When people find out you have schizoaffective disorder, they will proceed to discriminate against you!” I found out that she was partially correct. What my mother did not realize there were (and are) many people who love me in spite of their knowledge of my disorder-including people in my church family and my long-standing female friends of 20-plus years. Although they love me, almost every one of those friends still underestimates the extent and magnitude of my talents and abilities, and tries to put me in a box. I am quite sure that God did not put me in a box as some people do. I know for sure that I have God given talents and abilities within me that people are not aware of! On the other hand, there are parts of me that even I am not aware of. All people are multifaceted! In 2008, one of the pastors of my church prophesied that I would be doing things that people had no clue that I could do. For example, I began praise dancing in my church at the age of 53 and I am still going strong at my present age of 59. I know that there are more great things to come!

Shame In My Game

Shame is born out of being stigmatized in many situations, or being a member of a family who taught shame. For me it was the former. Each time I went to the counseling center, a big wave of shame would suddenly come over me. I did not want any of my coworkers or bosses to see me going inside that building. I wished so intensely that there was a rear entrance. I did not want to lose my job because it was discovered that I was “crazy”. Many people from my neighborhood went to that clinic for psychiatric treatment. I did not want people to see me there and discover that I had a psychiatric illness. Unfortunately, my worst fears were realized when a child recognized me from the school I worked in and told his mother my name and how he knew me. So much for confidentiality!

As a Christian, I meditate on two verses from the Bible to help me overcome shame. “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well” (Ps. 139:14, NKJV). And, ‘”For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD,  ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future’” (Jer. 29:11, NIV).

When you see people with disabilities, DO NOT assume what their altitude will be in the Lord or what their altitude will be in life in general. God has power and he can rearrange people, things, and circumstances. As I yield myself to the Lord, he will determine my altitude in him and in life. As Christians, and as people in general, we must be careful not to write off people who have disabilities.

Where did stigma originate in the human race? How does stigmatization affect individuals internally and behaviorally, and who are its targets? How can we lessen the occurrences of stigmatization and discrimination against people with mental illness in society? Stigma had its origins in the Old Testament, specifically in Genesis 4:9-16. The stigmatized person was Cain, son of Adam and Eve, who was branded by God for killing his brother, Abel. Cain killed him because he was envious that God accepted Abel’s sacrifice over his. The stigma was a mark or owtt (pronounced “oat”) in Hebrew. The owtt actually saved Cain’s life. People knew that if they killed Cain, God would cause Cain’s killer to suffer seven times more vengeance from God than Cain suffered.

     Stigma can be defined as “archaic: a mark of shame or discredit.”1 In addition, it is a set of negative and unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something.”2 “The effects of stigma on people living with mental illness causes them to:

Develop an intense fear of ‘coming out’;
Delay seeking necessary mental health care;
Develop a practice of self-stigmatization;
Endure discrimination”

“The effect of stigma on people dealing with mental health issues is as painful as the mental disorders themselves. The stigma causes society to develop the following attitudes and actions toward people with mental illness:

Fear
Mistrust
Prejudice

Violence against those with mental disorders.”3

“Frequently, stigma against people with mental health disorders involves propagation of inaccurate and negative perceptions-namely by the media movies and other platforms. They often portray those with mental disorders as violent, incompetent, and disdainful. Perpetuation of hurtful and inaccurate stereotypes by media is especially harmful because of the profound role it has in shaping and influencing social mores and attitudes. Whether consciously or not, the community as a whole ingests these negative attitudes, which they then use to stigmatize those with mental disorders.”4 Since the media is used as a tool to ingrain into the minds of society negative stereotypes about people with mental illness, it can also be used to erase those negative stereotypes. We who have mental illness have talents, abilities, aptitudes, and skills just as other people in our society do. Therefore, we must be allowed to use these qualities for the betterment of society. We must be given permanent opportunities to participate in society!

“Dr. Jeffery Swanson, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine”5 is one of the leading researchers on mental health and violence. Dr. Swanson stated, “We need to think of violence itself as a communicable disease. We have kids growing up exposed to terrible trauma. We did a study some years ago, looking at [violence risk] among people with serious mental illness. The three risk factors we found were most important: first, a history of violent victimization early in life, second, substance abuse, and third is exposure to violence in the environment around you. People who had none of these risk factors-even with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia-had very low rates of violent behavior.”6 “If someone has a history of any kind of violent or assaultive behavior, that’s actually a better predictor of future violence than having a mental health diagnosis.”7

“The vast majority of people with mental illnesses are not violent. Although studies suggest a link between mental illnesses and violence, the contribution of people with mental illnesses to overall rates of violence is small, and furthermore, the magnitude of the relationship is greatly exaggerated in the minds of the general population (Institute of Medicine, 2006).8 “People with psychiatric disabilities are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violent crime (Appleby et al., 2001).”9 “People with severe mental illnesses , schizophrenia, bipolar attacked, raped or mugged than the general population (Hiday, et, al., 1999).10

Signed: Renee D. Warring

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The Warrior Warring

Endnotes

       1http://merriam-webster.com/      

        2http://healthyplace.com/stigma/stand-up-for-mental-      

        health/stigma-and-discrimination-the-effects-of-stigma

        3Ibid.

        4http://propublica.org/article/myth-vs-fact-violence-

        and-mental-health

         5Ibid.

         6Ibid.

               7http://depts.washington.edu./mhreport/facts-

          violence.php

          8Institute of Medicine, Improving the Quality of

         Health Care for Mental and Substance-Use-Conditions.

         Washington D. C.: Institute of Medicine, 2006.

           9Appleby,L., Mortensen, P. B., Dunn, G., & Hiroeh, U.

           (2001). Death by Homicide, Suicide, and other

           unnatural causes in people with mental illness: a

           population-based study. The Lancet, 358, 2110-2112.

               10Hiday, V. A., Swartz, Swanson, J. W., et al. (1999).

          Criminal victimization of persons with severe mental

           Illness. Psychiatric Services, 50, 62-68.