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Moving Beyond Stigmas
In any given year, an estimated 50 million Americans--young and old, from all walks of life--experience some kind of mental health problem, e.g., depression or an anxiety disorder. While most people are willing to do whatever they can to help a friend in distress, just-released findings from a recent survey reveal that for one in four people the first awareness that someone close to them is suffering from a serious mental health disorder is when they learn their friend has been admitted to a hospital--and for nearly 5% of the population, the first sign that any problem even exists is their friend’s suicide attempt.
Such findings indicate that, despite all we know about how commonly experienced mental health problems are and the many effective treatments now available, the unfortunate stigma attached to mental health problems continues to persist; misinformation and perceived stigma are responsible for as few as one-fourth of those with mental health problems receive relief from their suffering by seeking professional help—and, equally dismaying, the fear of being judged, criticized or discriminated against keeps many from confiding their concerns to even their closest friends.
“We know that being accepted by your friends is one of the most important positive factors for anybody experiencing mental health problems,” said Ruth Lesirge, chief executive, Mental Health foundation, “but we all still need to do more to ensure that people feel able to talk to their friends when they first need support.”
543 people participated in the extensive survey, including some with mental health problems, as well as friends of people who’d experienced mental health problems. Although 75% of the respondents who had personally experienced a mental health problem said they could depend on their network of friends for emotional support in most areas of their lives, more than 34% expressed hesitation about talking to those same friends about their mental health problems. In fact, only 28% said they could tell most of their friends and cited such concerns as feeling their friends might not understand, or that they risked being thought of as a burden, or that their friends might be frightened because of any preconceived erroneous ideas associated with their condition.
Stigmas associated with mental health and therapeutic interventions use negative and erroneous labels and stereotypes and in so doing create barriers that discourage individuals and their families from getting the help they need. Stigmas remain “stuck” when no efforts are made to replace fear-driven or misinformed perceptions. For the sake of your own well-being, as well as your family’s and friends’, it’s essential to understand that mental health problems are commonplace, can affect anyone, and are nothing to be secretive about or ashamed of. And it’s especially key to appreciate that seeking help from a mental health professional is a wise and positive move that can save you and all those close to you from unnecessary suffering.
As Lesirge describes it, the more informed and enlightened each of us becomes about mental health issues and therapeutic interventions—being “informed, informal care-ers”—the sooner the negative myths or stigmas will drop away. But then, since you’ve come to 4therapy and you’re reading this article, you probably already have a healthy respect for mental health issues (or at least an interest in or receptivity to becoming well informed) and so we’re probably “preaching to the choir”—in which case, tell a friend!!
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