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No stigma, break the mental health taboo
(Last Updated On: March 18, 2021)
All of us have been aware of the term mental health for a really long time, but are we comfortable talking about it? Most people avoid this conversation because of the negative connotation attached to the word. Even though things are changing and people are more open about their mental health, depression, anxiety, other mental disorders, people going to therapy, counselling but we’re still far from ending the stigma.
For a very long-time mental health and wellbeing was not a real concept for most of the people in our society. In our society if you tell anyone about your mental health, or that you go for therapy or counselling they will just tell you to ‘get over it’. That is not the case, it is not something people can get over with. It is an illness that requires proper treatment, therapy and counselling. Mental illness is not shameful, the stigma and taboo around it is shameful, as a society we should be more understanding and accepting other than just dismissing these issues.
Mental illnesses or disorders require proper treatment from professionals like psychologists or psychiatrists. People with mental illnesses like anxiety and depression already face challenges like dealing with their feelings, having a work life balance, society shouldn’t add to their burden but instead try to create a safe space for them to address their feelings openly and not keep them bottled up with the fear of being judged by others.
It’s high time that we break this taboo. Some people can be unaware about suffering from a mental illness because people around them never take the issue seriously. As a society it is important that we speak up and educate everyone around us and make them understand that mental health and wellbeing is important.
Here are a few steps you can take to end the stigma and break the taboo around mental disorder:
- Do not define a person based on their mental health. It is a part of them not their whole identity. We should stop using mental illness as an adjective for people. It is not who they are, they are just suffering from it.
- We should acknowledge the fact and stop believing the myths around mental illness.
- We should take efforts to educate ourselves as well as people around us. To address the issue, it is important to be educated about it first.
- Put yourself in their shoes and learn to empathize. Everyone’s wellbeing is important.
- Encourage and support people suffering from mental illness, let them know they can come and talk with you, try to understand them instead of judging them.
Breaking the taboo will be a very long and hard process, but it all starts with you. If you are determined to end the stigma and educate people around you, then this small start can lead to something big. At the end your wellbeing is in your hands.
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