The Stigma of Mental Illness

As September Suicide Awareness month has ended and we turn the page into October, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes to change stigma and change a culture.

What is stigma, and where does it come from? Why does it exist? How do we change it?

I had to look up the origins of social stigma, a “severe social disapproval of a person because of a particular trait that indicates their deviance from social norms.” Whether this trait is a mental illness, physical deformity, or identification with a particular race, ethnicity, religion, or ideology (LibreTexts Introduction to Sociology).

What is the origin of how a stigma came to be, and how could this have been useful or protective for a society? Stigma serves the purpose of distancing a group that is not in alignment with the norm. In pre-modern times, as nomads and hunter-gatherers we needed the protection of our tribe for survival. Those who did not fit into the norm could jeopardize the safety and survival of the group. Those who did not belong to a group would inevitably die. Perhaps why the feeling and experience of rejection remains so deeply painful for us as human beings, thousands of years later.

When we think about why there remains such a stigma around mental health, even though the majority struggles with some form of mental illness or symptoms of depression and anxiety, how has this stigma been somehow protective? How has this stigma served us? And how do we begin to change this now?

While our society and culture have changed dramatically over the last thousand years, even in the last 100 years, I  reflect on how much we as human beings innately have not changed. We still struggle with the thoughts and emotions of our hunter-gatherer ancestors thousands of years ago. We still struggle to be accepted and to belong. We still struggle with feelings of pain when we are not the norm. We still struggle with deep shame when we are ostracized by stigma.

What is most interesting to me about the stigma of mental illness, is that while the vast majority struggle on some level, only a minority of us openly admit to it. How liberating could it be to shift the norm instead to one of where mental illness is not viewed so much as an “illness” but part of the integral health of us all?

We often hear the phrases “fight mental health stigma,” “combat stigma” and “breakdown stigma.” There is clearly a place for creating strong statements such as these to wake us up and inspire change. However, when I think about what it really takes to change stigma, buried deep in shame inside each of us, for this to really inspire change the approach must come from a place of love, empathy, curiosity and understanding. How many of our minds and hearts are changed by force? How many of us listen when we hear shouting? How many of us listen instead when someone sits down, eye-to-eye, and speaks with kindness and conviction from the heart?

I challenge you to sit down, and speak with kindness, honesty, and conviction from your heart. The way to change stigma and culture is to connect with love and empathy, one person at a time. To say “I’m here” and “I love you” and “You are not alone.” To connect as human beings, human-to-human. Because at the end of the day, we are all human beings, regardless of our background, status, education, or culture. We are all brothers and sisters, with the same struggles, shame, and fears. We change a culture by coming together not with force, but with love, knowing that none of us are alone. We change the stigma of mental illness by openly sharing our humanity and vulnerabilities as the universal experience of our human race.

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