Just to get things started, I’ll say that I’m “mentally ill”, I “suffer from” depression, and I’m a little bit “crazy”, although the degree varies over time. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, there are a lot of people who like to take a stand against terminology that is thought to stigmatize […]
“Rules” for Talking About Our Mental Illnesses Read More »
Sometimes, as part of anti-stigma campaigns, you’ll hear that we shouldn’t say people are bipolar, schizophrenic, etc. The thinking goes that phrasing it this way puts people in a little box in which they’re primarily defined by their illness. Yet at the same time, you’ll find many bloggers referring to themselves as “I am bipolar.”
Are You Your Mental Illness? Read More »
Today is World Mental Health Day (the 27th annual), and this year’s focus is on mental health promotion and suicide prevention. Suicide awareness is a big part of this. The message from the president of the World Federation for Mental Health, which organizes World Mental Health Day, states: “The object of making suicide prevention the
Suicide Awareness Isn’t Enough for Prevention Read More »
The idea of labelling people as attention-seeking is not unique to mental illness, but it’s certainly something that seems to come up an awful lot. The labellers might be friends and family, but unfortunately, they may also be health care providers. One of the labels that comes up regularly is “attention-seeking.” Physical manifestations of mental
The “Attention-Seeking” Label and the Stigma It Represents Read More »
“Drug-seeking.” “Med-seeking.” They’re labels with very negative connotations, but health care providers often use them to refer to patients taking medications with the potential for abuse. Yet isn’t anyone going to see their doctor for a prescription seeking out drugs? Why is seeking medications okay in some instances but not in others? If “medication compliance”
“Drug-Seeking”: Health Professional Labelling of Patients Read More »
This post about public views on suicide was inspired by a conversation I’ve been having with Dear Walden about research on suicide. In 2013, a group of Australian researchers developed and validated a scale to evaluate public views on suicide, which they named the Stigma of Suicide Scale. For each item on the scale, participants would
Suicide Stigma: What the Research Says About Public Views Read More »
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. There are many ways to approach the concept of suicide prevention. One of those ways is to decrease the stigma related to suicidality, because stigma tends to promote silence, and silence is definitely not a good thing when it comes to suicidality. One stigmatized belief that I see frequently expressed
No, Suicide Is Not Selfish Read More »
Black feminist researcher Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw first proposed the concept of intersectionality in 1989 to represent the many different layers of social stratification that can combine to disadvantage people. This includes factors like race, sexual orientation, social class, age, disability, and gender. Expanding on this concept, sociologist Patricia Hill Collins described the intersectional points as the matrix
Intersectionality and What it Means for Mental Health Read More »
Employers aren’t supposed to discriminate against people with mental illness. In fact, it’s often against the law. Yet employment discrimination happens anyway, and it’s a form of structural stigma. So what do we do about it when it does? Legal protection Canadian human rights legislation In Canada, provincial human rights legislation requires equal rights and
Mental Illness and Employment Discrimination Read More »
NIMBYism is a fascinating phenomenon. NIMBYs, who think that something is okay as long as it’s Not In My BackYard, cover discrimination with a thin veneer of civility and acceptability. Among the many manifestations of this is with regards to social housing, including supported housing for people with mental illness. The NIMBY arguments NIMBYs’ arguments
NIMBYism and Resistance to Mental Health Housing Read More »
