Stigma and Self Acceptance - Ten Ways to Reduce Stigma

We learn at an early age to make judgments about the world we live in. Walking down the street, we become aware of a drunk in a doorway, a disheveled person sitting on a bus bench and mumbling to no one in particular, babbling words in sentences that make no sense. There is something strange and uneasy about these encounters. We’re put off. So, we shun these people, separate ourselves, the healthy, and create a category for the “others” who don’t fit in normal society. Fortunately, we think, “They are not us.”

This is fine until years later when you become one of “them,” the mentally ill, and you abhor your situation. Your fears, your apprehensions, are confirmed. Becoming the shunned and avoided, you picture yourself as having a life that is cut short. The promise of success and achievement is derailed. Instead, you are to be locked away, doomed to be cast onto society’s dung heap, a shallow, shadowy life to follow, cut off before your prime. There will be no college graduation, no marriage, no children; just the hum drum of medication, stale routine, and dependency on others. We put on the mantle of the mentally ill, and we are damned. Damned by ourselves, damned by the attitudes of others.

It doesn’t need to be this way. Hopefully, we can live in a more enlightened way. The old rubric that mental illness is somehow a character flaw, a weakness that can be controlled if only willpower were applied does not satisfy us anymore. It’s about bio-chemistry, not bad karma.

Ten Ways to Reduce Stigma

1. Acceptance
2. Educate yourself about your illness
3. Be an advocate to others
4. Consider self-disclosure when appropriate
5. Focus on your good points
6. Appreciate yourself
7. Recognize that your illness is bio-chemical
8. Maintain a positive attitude
9. Create a support community
10. Allow others to care about you