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neurolove:

Mental Illness and Societal Stigma

Despite all that we know now about mental illnesses, there is still a lot of stigma against the people who are diagnosed with them.  While people with cancers, for instance, are empathized with and often very supported, people who have been diagnosed with a mental illness are often rejected and have difficulty garnering empathy.  The fact is that mental illnesses are caused by dysfunctional brain activity, the same way that physical illnesses are caused by other dysfunctional body organs.  Society on the whole is more likely to blame an individual for their mental illness than recognize it as something outside of that individual’s control.

I acknowledge that this has been getting much better with time, but society as a whole still has large bounds to make in understanding and treating mental illnesses.  Perhaps part of the problem is that they are relatively poorly understood at this point in time, but I would argue that the reason for that is that they have been stigmatized against for so long that it is preventative to learning more about them.  I am hoping that this will continue to improve with time and that eventually, there will be no preferential treatment of physical over mental illnesses, as they are just as real, debilitating and difficult in the individuals who have to live with them.

To this end, I am planning to start a multiple post series about bipolar disorder in conjunction with information provided by a friend of mine who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  I am going to walk through the diagnosis, development, treatment, as well as a few of the known brain differences in bipolar disorder.  For privacy, I will refer to my friend as “EH.”  I feel that providing this information from both a more clinical (my) and personal (EH’s) perspective will help to elucidate the image of mental illness and give a fuller portrait of bipolar disorder.  It is also important to know that I was unaware of EH’s diagnosis entirely until they outright told me, partially because they have been lucky enough to have been diagnosed and treated well and also because mental illnesses are often less obvious than physical disorders, which does not make them any less real or pervasive.  EH is a fully functioning and productive member of society, and is just one case of bipolar disorder, but I think we can still learn a lot from their experiences.

To begin, when I asked EH about the stigma around their diagnosis, they replied, “I am very open about my bipolar, mostly because it explains my personality type.  I recognize that there is a lot of stigma, as my mother is still waiting for me to admit it’s a sham and come off the medication.  Bipolar has helped me define myself, because it has allowed me to recognize what parts of myself are chosen personality traits and what parts I can now control.  Everyone has biology things they need to struggle to understand and work to find mechanisms to overcome.  This has been a huge science project for me, essentially. I am proud to be who I am, part of which is my relationship to my disease.”

Please take care to be polite and respectful in response to any discussion of EH’s personal experiences and observations, which will always appear in quotes.

[Image Source: Amber Osterhout’s anti-stigma art]

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aleygreenblo:

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iloveprettypinkthings:

My obsession with peonies grows more every day, especially when I find images of so many various shades of pink and white!  Perhaps my boyfriend should be looking at this blog more often to get the hint!

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