There is an illness that is different from any other illness
or disease that we know of. This illness has few, if any, outward physical
symptoms. Most of the time, we cannot tell that a person has this illness just
by looking at them. The illness I am talking about is mental illness am weirdly
proud to say that I have been affected by mental illnesses. Over the past week,
I have been able to find many research articles on mental illness and what can
be done to reduce the stigma of having a mental illness. Today, I am going to
be talking to you about the stigmas associated with mental illness and what we
can do to decrease this stigma. Depression,
generalized anxiety disorder, eating disorders, etc are more common than one
might realize, but they often go unnoticed because of these stigmas. First, I
will define mental illness and give you some statistics about mental illness.
Second, I will define stigma and tell you about the ways mentally ill people
have been stigmatized both in the past and today and why. Finally, I will tell
you about some laws that attempt to decrease stigma in the work place and offer
suggestions as to how to further decrease stigma.
In order to
understand what mental illness is, it is helpful to have an operational
definition of the term. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) states
that " mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion or
income" and defines mental illness as " a medical condition that
disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and
daily functioning... that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with
the ordinary demands of life." Using this definition, we can conclude that
mental illness is non-discriminatory and is a legitimate condition that affects
a person's ability to function in their day-to-day life. The statistics on mental illness are
surprising. NAMI's website gives the following statistics on reported mental
illness. Bipolar disorder or manic depression affects over 10 million
Americans. Depression affects 5-8% of adults, 1 in 8 women, 1 in 5 teenaged
children, 2% of school-aged children, and about 20% of seniors aged 65 or
older. OCD affects 1 in 40 people or about 2% of the population. Schizophrenia
affects 2.4 million adults over the age of 18. Anxiety disorders affect about
20% of the population. Looking at the numbers gives us a better picture of how
common mental illnesses actually are. However, most psychologists believe that
these numbers are too low because of the cases that go unreported because of
the stigma of having a mental illness.
The
understanding of stigma is that stigma is not something you want to have. An
article in the International Journal of Students' Research written by Kah Poh
Loh and Hatem Ghorab published in 2011 defines stigmatization in psychiatry as
"a stereotypical set of negative attitudes, incorrect beliefs, and fear
associated with the diagnosis of mental
illness." Based on this definition, we can see why someone who thinks they
may have a mental illness would not report it and have negative attitudes,
incorrect beliefs, and fear directed towards them. The stigmatization of mental
illness is not something new. In the article "From Sin to Science:
Fighting the Stigmatization of Mental Illness" published in August
2012, Julio Arboleda-Flores, MD, PhD,
and Heather Stuart, MA, PhD state that
"banishment has been a consistent societal response to people with
a mental illness." Forms of banishment included asylums, being thrown out
of the city walls, or being placed in a ship that would not disembark. We can see
that, even from a time when it was not well understood, mental illness was
something that was looked down upon.
Stigmatization in today's society comes from media attention and personal beliefs. Arboleda-Flores and Stuart explain that most of the contact that is made with mental illnesses is "through news or entertainment media where people with mental illnesses are depicted as unpredictable, violent, and dangerous." If this type of media depiction is the only way people with mental illnesses are seen, it is no wonder why there is a stigma towards having a mental illness. Adding to the stigma is the weight that personal beliefs carry. A research study conducted by Bernice A. Pescosolido, PhD and colleagues published in March of this year found that stigma does have a backbone. After surveying a total of 19, 508 people across the world, they found that "even in countries with more accepting cultural climates, issues that deal primarily with intimate settings, vulnerable groups, or self-harm elicit the greatest amount of negative response" among other findings. So even if someone is raised to be more accepting, if there is an issue that harms the people around them, they are more likely to feel negatively about that issue. Mental illness is one of those issues. With all the negativity and stigmas directed towards mental illness, various measures have been taken to try to decrease it.
Since about the late 1970s, there have been various laws put into effect to decrease stigma of mental illness in the workplace. Janet R. Cummings and colleagues discuss three of these laws in their article "Addressing Public Stigma and Disparities Among Persons with Mental Illness: The Role of Federal Policy" which was published by the American Journal of Public Health in March of this year. The first is the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 which "required large private group health plans that offer mental health or substance use disorder coverage to offer these benefits at parity with medical or surgical benefits in annual and lifetime dollar limits, financial requirements, and treatment limitations." The second is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 requires substance use disorder coverage to "be included in essential benefit packages for insurance plans." The third of these is the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 which protects individuals with mental illness and other disabilities from discrimination "in job application procedures, hiring, advancement, discharge, compensation, and other employment-related conditions" much like the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 protected children from stigma. These laws were enacted to reduce the stigma of mental illness and have been successful in doing so. However, these laws do not protect everyone. Cummings and colleagues state that even though antidiscrimination laws have expanded over time, they do not necessarily protect all subgroups with different types of mental illnesses. Though there has been success in protecting those with a mental illness, there should be more Federal policies to ensure coverage of the subgroups of mental illness.
Decreasing stigma in the workplace is a positive step forward. However, I believe further steps to reduce stigma should begin in childhood. It is important that children be educated about the signs of a mental illness so they can recognize it in themselves and others and not be ashamed if they fall victim to a mental illness. Adults should also consider educating themselves about mental illnesses. I am not suggesting a full-blown abnormal psychology class, but rather one that covers the basics of common mental illnesses such as what they are, the signs and symptoms, and the risk factors associated with them.
We now have an understanding of what mental illnesses are, how common they are, how and why people stigmatize, and the laws that have been set to decrease stigma in the workplace. Remember that mental illness is a sickness of the brain and does not have many physical manifestations so it is not easily recognizable just by looking at someone. I hope that after tonight you all can recognize stigmas within yourselves and the people around you and try to change any stigmas towards mental illness that you recognize. I also hope that you will take some time and educate yourselves about the various mental illnesses out there. If you educate yourselves, it may be easier for you to talk to a friend who is being affected by a mental illness and help them not feel stigmatized.
