Lived Experience Forum

[chemonro]

Did anyone see this article? I think it's an interesting take on the socially constructed nature of mental illness.... 

https://theconversation.com/brains-genes-and-chemical-imbalances-how-explanations-of-mental-illness-...

[nyxsong]

I had actually encountered that article and it is fascinating that people both removed an aspect of blame and yet felt that recovery prospects were limited. In my mind that is the equivalent of saying to a diabetic, "look we know it isn't your fault that you have type 1, but seriously we can't trust you to take your insuline, control your diet and act responsibly. sorry."

---

[chemonro]

Society is multi dimensional. At the same time more and more personality traits are being reclassified as genetically linked disorders, jobs are becoming harder to get and educational and interpersonal standards required to participate in society get higher, and surveillance increases. 

The marginal become more marginalised and economic inequality increases. 

What impact will this have on stigma and discrimination?

[Alessandra1992]

And therein lies the nub of stigma, anything that seeks to blame people isn't helpful. It's the sense of us versus them, or ourselves vs others...it is a community it's a divider not a uniter!
We don't get to choose to have asthma, bronchitis, eczema, cancer, bipolar, depression,schizophrenia, low incomes, migrant backgrounds, or high incomes and excellent health.
It's not where we come from (which is random) it's who do we want to be?
And we all should be able to be free, free from discrimination, and have hope for our futures (notwithstanding sometimes our health get the better of all of us and goes into decline, physical, mental, spiritual or social).
Still need hope not fear!

[kristin]

Well said Alessandra!

[nyxsong]

The source of stigma is fear, the kind born of ignorence. Mental illness in the media is, at least in the majority of cases, in two ways. The "psycho" who is without remorse or the person who dances away bi-polar or who gets a girlfriend and forgets about their OCD. We know their is more shades to it than that, but people have a tendency to pidgeonhole things until such time as they encounter a reason not too. They are unaware that Sally in accounting has BPD or that Mark in their partical physics degree has schizophrenia that is well controlled, but they can tell you about the homeless guy who mutters to himself, and recall how it freaks them out, unaware of the torment tearing apart his mind, voices that will not still, and so they go and have that late with Sally or Mark and tell them about that weird old dude, and Sally and Mark stay quiet because they don't want to be lumped in with that concept. The great breaker of ignorence is education, and the best education comes from showing people that we can do a great many things, we can bee book keepers or physicists and yes we can be homeless but then so can everyone else.

So to the Sallys and the Marks I say have a conversation when you feel comfortable because the person you have that conversation with may just have a conversation with someone else and ripples are beautiful things.

[kristin]

Well said Nyx,

We all need to try to have those conversations. You need to pick who and the moment, but they are important. The other day my neighbour, who I get on with pretty well, was going on about Tony Abbott being bipolar. I looked at him and said "No, we (pointing to my former partner and I) have bipolar. Tony is probably a plain old psychopath."

One of the good things about turning 50 for me has been that much of my fear of social stigma seems to have fallen away. At least fear for myself anyway, it is still there to a degree for my kids because people can be so cruel and judgemental - "your mum's crazy". I seem to have crossed a bridge into a place in my life where I feel a much greater sense of self-acceptance, and I am enjoying life more even when it's hard. It feels like knowing that whatever happens in my life I will survive it - I don't think Sh*t will never happen again, in fact I'm certain it will, and it does - sometimes daily. But I can survive and even thrive, and be myself warts and all. 

It is from this space that I have much more confidence to speak out of my own lived experience. I don't have so much need for the acceptance of others (especially strangers and acquaintances) because I've finally begun to accept myself, something I couldn't even imagine 20 years ago.

Best regards,

Kristin

[Alessandra1992]

Well said everyone!i think it so crucial we have conversations around mental health, as talking about it removes the 'otherness' that comes with being different. It doesn't mean I run around telling all and sundry about my journey, but I am pretty open to sharing when the opportunity is timely. I am just thrilled more attention is being directed to young people at younger ages to talk about mental health and how you can help your friends. That's a big step in the right direction in my book..

[nyxsong]

We may not be the group of people Martin Luther King Jnr had in mind when he uttered the following words "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends", but it still holds true.

[Ma60]

I found this a couple of years ago and have used it to get people to think about their attitudes to mental illness
STOP
S Stereotyping
T Trivialising or belittling health challenges.
O. Offending someone with your attitude
P. Patronising someone with mental health challenges because unconsciously you believe you are " better than them"
Remember mental illness can affect anyone. Stop and think before you judge.
Bringchange2mind.org