LET'S TALK ABOUT THE STIGMA

In starting up a blog about mental illness the first thing to be addressed, and the inspiration behind this blog's name, is the negative stigma typically associated with mental illness and the people who have them. A stigma is defined as a mark or feeling of disgrace that sets a person apart from others. However, with mental illness, a stigma is related more to context than appearance and contributes to the stereotypes and prejudice these disabilities

the stigma and preconcieved ideas people often have about mental illness are typically along the lines of "crazy", "dramatic", "lazy" or above everything, "all in your head."

As someone with a mental illness, i too am guilty of at one point, having a stigma and percieving mental illness as just crazy and "all in my head", especially for myself. For the longest time i had the biggest self-stigma and refused to believe that my feelings were anything valid and internalized this into feeling to believe that I held less value as an individual because i have a mental disorder. but the truth is, a mental disorder is simply just that. a disorder. mental illnesses do not define a person nor is it anything to see negatively. It is literally just what it is, an illness, a disorder, whatever you'd like to call it. And if your'e reading this and have maybe now or at any point experienced a form of mental illness, that's all i hope you can take away from this. You are more than a mental disorder because you and you and nothing less that your head might try to convince you that you are. I really think that if more people began to think this way, we'd see a lot more advancements in the world towards acceptance and education. when an average of 1 in 6 people will experience depression at some point in their life and 1 in 4 people will experience anxiety at some point, we can't deny that it exists. For a topic so hush hush, it seems so silly when we are literally surrounded and affected by it every day.

however, there is good news! it doesn't have to be this way and especially in the past 5 or so years, i've seen a great change in awareness and education of mental illnesses in our society. People are so much more aware of the problem and accepting as they've ever been and i really see it begining to erase the negative stigma really hope to see this trend continue on so that we don't have to fear mental illness but accept is as nothing more than the disability that it is rather than something that defines a person.