Why Is Mental Illness a Stigmatizing Experience - Essay Example

Why is mental illness a stigmatizing experience Introduction The ground of my research is to evaluate that how metal illness and stigma related to one and other, why people experience stigma at the stage of mental sickness, considerations on the stigma of mental illness and how it's evaluated or measured. About Stigma Stigma related to the state of humiliation or embarrassment because it badly affects the life of the person which is experiencing the illness. "Goffman noted that it was the ancient Greeks who originated the term "to refer to bodily signs designed to expose something unusual and bad about the moral status of the signifier." (Scheffer, 2003) Media played a great role in portraying the negative side of mental-illness. It resulted in a fact that they started lacking in the different aspects of life i.e. in self esteem, confidence, attaining proper medical guidance etc. "The vast majority of Americans report receiving information about mental illness from the mass media (Wahl, 1992). In our society, these images are typically inaccurate and overwhelmingly negative, characterizing people with mental illnesses as violent, dangerous, unpredictable, incompetent, and unlikable" (Alexander and Link, 2003) Form the recent year's stigma have been associated with the metal-illness and more research should have to be done to clearly understand the situations and conditions that leads towards stigmatization behavior. The people experiencing stigma are in very worse condition they mostly face difficulty in surviving with the disease and as well with the labeling and stereotyping which other people use to mark them with. (Patrick et al, 2005) "As a result of both, people with mental illness are robbed of the opportunities that define a quality life: good jobs, safe housing, satisfactory health care, and affiliation with a diverse group of people." (Patrick and Watson, 2002) Conditions on Stigma of Mental-Illness A narrow research took place to consider the conditions that contributes in the stigma of mental-illness. Goffman related stigma as a characteristic that is extremely shameful. He added that the people suffering from stigmatization, their status in the society really effects. He stated 3 conditions of stigma that mostly affect them: 1. Physical Appearance: Goffman uses the word of "abominations" of the body" that means that the person is loathing, disgust and can be a cause of nausea. The Appearance of the person is not normal and there is some kind of malformation in the body. 2. Racism: Stigma effects diversely on people of different sex, from different cultures, diverse religion and dissimilar traditions. 3. Flaw of Appearance: It includes that the person is mentally turmoil that makes him imperfect and defected. Goffman label them as "blemishes of individual character," Three-dimensional axis is portrayed to understand the stigma based on the study of interpersonal skills and relation within the surroundings. Perception, identity and reaction are included in three-dimensional axis. (Arboleda-Flrez, 2003) "A central aspect of stigma for people with mental illnesses is the perception that they are dangerous and unpredictable" (Alexander and Link, 2003) How Stigma Is Attested Stigma attested by the attitudes of the people in the surroundings. Some of the visible characteristics clearly states that those people are stigmatized like embarrassment, frightening, bias, angriness, and stereotyping. The people that experience stigmatization, their lives become so difficult to be survive. As well as their families faces difficulties and problems to cope with them. Scheffer quoted "Stigma leads others to avoid living, socializing or working with, renting to, or employing people with mental disorders, especially severe disorders such as schizophrenia" (Scheffer, 2003) Attesting Measures of Stigma The measure that takes to attest the stigma is: 1. People avoid seeking for the treatment when they are stigmatized. They find it shameful to approach to a medical assistance and disclose about their condition. "One fourth of the estimated 50 million Americans that experience a mental illness will not seek mental health services because of the stigma associated with mental illness (CMHS, 2000)." (Bradley and Brown, 2002) "Powerful and pervasive, stigma prevents people from acknowledging their own mental health problems, much less disclosing them to others." (A report of the Surgeon General) 2. Unemployment is also one of the attesting measures. Unemployment leads towards the stigmatization. In the workplace people find that when the illness discovered among the other, the power of competence become low but some of them try to avoid or hide it from the other so that it would be regarded as a disease. People mostly avoid to the mention their medical history in the workplace as it is attributed as a dishonorable. 3. Stigmatization experience usher people to step towards isolation, cut-off with the outer world and make their own isolated world. They lack in self confidence and low self esteem. They tend to do that because of the shamefulness and loathing inside them. 4. To avoid such circumstance people around them try to cope up with them and help them in emerging and mingling with the outer world. Stigma Agents Included In Stigma The agents that included during the experience of stigma are very much diverse and may through more research more factors can be come in front. Stereotyping: It is one of the factors that tend towards stigmatization and people think that they can't help themselves in such situation. Mostly people Mark or referred mentally-ill people with the groups that also contributes in increasing stigma. "People with mental illnesses experience all of the key features of the stigma process; they are officially tagged and labeled, set apart, connected to undesirable characteristics, and broadly discriminated against as a result" (Alexander and Link, 2003) Appearance: It includes that the person is mentally turmoil that makes him imperfect and defected. Goffman label them as "blemishes of individual character," People may also face stigmatization due to their illness related behaviors i.e. anger, anxiousness, and different situations that contributed in resulting of stigma. "People with physical symptoms tend to be less stigmatized that those with behavioral symptoms; people with more visible symptoms are more stigmatized than those with less readily apparent symptoms; people with symptoms considered to be "bizarre" are more frequently stigmatized than others" (Scheffer, 2003) Role of Media: Role of media played a greater role in representing and relating the mental-illness negatively. "A recent study which examined how mental illness was portrayed in all print media on a national basis found that negative depictions predominated, with dangerousness to others and criminality being the most common at 61.3 percent and 47.3 percent respectively" (Scheffer, 2003) But there are other institutes that take it positively and try to convey better message to the people in respond to mentally ill populace. "A social justice perspective would target institutions that traditionally may not be considered worthy goals for change because they seek good ends" (Corrigan, et al, 2005) Stigma as Public Health Problem Stigma refers as a main public health problem in most of the countries. But referring it with problem is not collectively fair. Many institutions and organizations are working to remove this type of cognation. "One example is the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill's (NAMI) "Mental Illness is a Brain Disease" campaign, in which the organization distributed posters, buttons, and literature that provided information about the biological basis of serious mental illness." (Muhlbauer, 2002) It is the hurdle between the activities of everyday life for the people who are labeled as a mentally- sick. The perceptions mainly people bring into their minds are like, we are the worst creature on the earth, we can't compete others etc. The mother of a young woman with schizophrenia described her initial avoidance of treatment for an increasingly Psychotic daughter: "In the back of my mind I was worrying that if I took her in, that whoever I took her to would think I was crazy, so I took her home and we tried to watch her." (Muhlbauer, 2002) The people who use to label the other people or stereotype them with mental-illness, they should consider that those are the same creature as they do. Every one is equal (Muhlbauer, 2002) and can't be distinguish on the bases of cast, gender, or ethnicity. The rights of mentally-ill people should be safeguarded and proper status should be given to them as a normal Human Being. Conclusion The mental-illness is a stigmatization experience because it directs the person towards isolation and low self esteem, as well as lack of self confidence and lacking in acting as a normal person. The labeling should be prohibited as "One reason given is not wanting to suffer the stigma that accompanies being labeled "mentally ill". (Davis and Kristine, 2005) In order to change the stigma the families or people surround then have to play a important role to get them out from that situation "In addition to protesting the erosion of their authority, some psychiatrists, and a number of relatives of people with mental illness, expressed misgivings about elevating the values of liberty and autonomy over benevolence and paternalism" (Robert M. Levy et al 1996) and awareness should be created among the people to treat these kind of people normally. These aware can be done by different and social institutions. "South Carolina's Department of Mental Health [SCDMH] launched their Anti-Stigma Campaign in May 20s00 to raise awareness and reduce fear associated with Mental illness" (Bradley and Brown, 2002) Work Cited Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General - Chapter 8 Accessed October 19, 2006 Julio Arboleda-Flrez. Considerations on the Stigma of Mental Illness. CJP - November 2003 http://www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/2003/november/guesteditorial.asp Accessed October 18, 2006 Rena Scheffer, Addressing Stigma: Increasing Public Understanding of Mental Illness, Director, Public Education and Information Services Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Presented to: The Standing Senate Committee On Social Affairs, Science And Technology. May 28, 2003 Accessed October 19, 2006 Susan Muhlbauer, RN, CS, APRN, PhD. Experience of Stigma by Families with Mentally Ill Members. Vol. 8, No. 3. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. June 2002. Accessed October 19, 2006 Patrick W Corrigan and Amy C Watson. Understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness. World Psychiatric Association. 2002 February; 1(1): 16-20 Accessed October 19, 2006 Mental illness and stigma: Coping with the ridicule - MayoClinic.com. Accessed on October 18, 2006 Patrick W. Corrigan, Amy C. Watson, Peter Byrne, and Kristin E. Davis. Mental Illness Stigma: Problem of Public Health or Social Justice volume 50, number 4 CCC Code: 0037-8046/05 J3,00 O2005 National AssocratJon of Social Workers 363. october 2005 pages 363-368. Davis and Kristin E. Mental illness stigma: problem of public health or social justice (Column), Social Work, 2005 Accessed October 19, 2006 Robert M. Levy and Leonard S. Rubenstein. The Rights of People with Mental Disabilities: The Authoritative ACLU Guide to the Rights of People with Mental Illness and Mental Retardation. Southern Illinois University Press Carbondale, IL. 1996. Laurel A. Alexander and Bruce G. Link. The impact of contact on stigmatizing attitudes toward people with mental illness. Journal of Mental Health (June 2003) 12, 3, 271 - 289 Loretta J. Bradley and Kaylene Brown. Reducing the Stigma of Mental Illness: Journal of Mental Health Counseling. American Mental Health Counselors Association. 2002. Page Number: 81+ Read More