#MHMTID — Mental Health Youth Crisis: "The Social Stigma and Discrimination" (Chapter. 1)

Written by Andi Bazaar | Saturday. April 23, 2022

“While most youth are healthy, physically and emotionally — one in every four to five youth in the general population meet criteria for a lifetime mental disorder and as a result may face discrimination and negative attitudes.”

As with physical health, mental health is not merely the absence of disease or a mental health disorder. It includes emotional well-being, psychological well-being, social well-being and involves being able to:

1. Navigate the complexities of life
2. Develop fulfilling relationships
3. Adapt to change
4. Utilize appropriate coping mechanisms to achieve well-being
5. Realize their potential
6. Have their needs met
7. Develop skills that help them navigate the different environments

For people with mental health issues, the social stigma and discrimination they experience can make their problems worse — making it harder to recover. It may cause the person to avoid getting the help they need because of the fear of being stigmatised.

Remember that other people’s judgements often come from a lack of understanding rather than anything else, these judgments are made before they get to know you.

• “Do not believe that their views have anything to do with you personally.”
• “Do not define yourself by your illness as other people might instead of saying ‘I’m schizophrenic,' say ‘I have schizophrenia.' There is power in language.”

Sometimes if you hear or experience something often enough, you start to believe it yourself. Try not to let other people’s ignorance influence the way you feel about yourself, mental illness is not a sign of weakness and is rarely something you can deal with on your own. Talking about your mental health issues with healthcare professionals will help you on your road to recovery or management.

Joining a mental health support group either online or in person can help you deal with feelings of isolation and make you realise that you are not alone in your feelings and experiences, here are the impacts of gender-based discrimination on mental health.

“Gender inequality harms everyone, regardless of the background or identity. Gender inequality is a product of sexism which is prejudice or discrimination against people based on their gender/sex.”

1. Gender inequality causes anxiety disorder and equally causes panic disorder, victims of this form of discrimination tend to face this.
2. It causes depression. From depression, eating disorder is often developed by the victims as a form of coping mechanism.
3. This form of discrimination also causes negative self image and low self esteem, which may all lead to the victim having suicidal tendencies.
4. It causes chronic stress, trauma and PTSD due to physical and verbal abuse during discrimination.
5. This also impacts the thoughts of the victim as he/she could be affected by Insomnia.
6. The victims often go from the phase of anger to that of sadness, subsequently to numbness and later disconnecting or secluding themselves from the world.

Gender based discrimination should be combated. Raising awareness, punishments for this crime and conducting worshops and other initiatives should be taken to prevent this. When we’re tackling mental health stigma and discrimination, we’ve got to spread some facts around there are so many misconceptions and myths about mental health.

So, here’s some of myths and truths:

• (MYTH): "People with mental illness are violent and more likely to commit a crime.”
• (FACT): “People with mental illness are far more likely to be the victim/survivor of a crime than the perpetrator, 45% of people with severe mental illness have been the victim of a crime in the last year.”
• (MYTH): “Everyone is (a little bit OCD)”
• (FACT): “OCD is not about being neat, tidy or organised. It can be a huge issue for people and is characterised by invasive and persistent thoughts or feelings which can take up hours of your day and cause huge stress and upset.”

It's not just about being clean, OCD can manifest entirely internally with never ending worries that you will do something bad or that something will go terribly wrong if you don't do something specific. It ain't liking colour-coding your notes or organising your bookshelf.

When we say things like "oh I'm SO OCD," (when what we really mean is that we like things a certain way) we can be accidentally increasing stigma and discrimination against those with OCD by making people think of it as something simple and easy to fix and not a genuine problem.

• (MYTH): “Everyone is just as likely to develop a mental illness as anyone else.”
• (FACT): “Prevalence rates vary hugely by things such as social marginalisation (e.g. racial issues, LGBTQIA+ issues, class, disability, etc) — research into this is astounding.”

Rates of mental illness are generally far higher in marginalised groups, this is compounded when people experience marginalisation for multiple reasons. (E.g, LGBTQIA+ people are more likely to develop mental illnesses and LGBTQIA+ people who are also BME people/PoC are even more likely.)

• (MYTH): “Schizophrenia means you have split personalities.”
• (FACT): “Schizophrenia is a complex illness with many sub categories but none of these involve split personalities, Schizophrenia is characterised by: (delusions, hallucinations and low mood among others.)”

“Ok so what about bipolar, is that a split personality then?”

• (FACT): “Still no, Bipolar is characterised by periods of both depression and mania. Often with long periods of feeling totally fine between them, very few people cycle through moods from minute to minute as the myth goes.”

Friend of mine had personal experience of having bipolar (Type II: “if you’re interested!”) — is that my depressive episodes last for months, whereas he’ll have a week or so of (hypo)mania at a time and then flatten out for months (unfortunately it doesn’t come with a schedule.)

• (MYTH): “Mania means that you’re really happy.”
• (FACT): “Mania presents differently depending on the person, it can feel like happiness and confidence but just as commonly it means feeling on edge, irritable, impulsive and acting with less regard for your own safety or consequences.”
• (MYTH): “People with mental illness can just push through it, it’s all in your head!”
• (FACT): "Of course it’s in your head, it’s a mental illness but that doesn’t make it less real. The brain is unfathomably complicated and can get sick just like any other part of your body.”

Telling someone to just toughen up is unhelpful it doesn’t work and it can make someone feel guilty that they aren’t doing enough even though they’re doing all they can, it is a real physical illness which cannot be cured by simply thinking happy thoughts.

• (MYTH): “Being (triggered) means someone has got annoyed or upset about something.”
• (FACT): "Triggered," is a term used by mental health professionals to describe the severe impact upon a person certain stimuli can have, particularly in the case of PTSD.”

The effects of being triggered can include flashbacks, panic attacks, sweating, hyperventilation and raised heart rate.

• For example: “a veteran with PTSD may be triggered by the sound of gunshots.” (PTSD is also common after experiencing sexual violence and other trauma)

It’s also a bit silly, people with mental illness are not weak. The very fact we’re here fighting for better treatment is testament to our toughness. Clayton Euridicé Schofield does a great job at empowering people to tell their stories to bring us together.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

• Co-wrote by Michael Freimann
• Photographed by José Schenkkan
• Edited by Jwan Höffler Conwall
• Journalist/Publisher by Clayton Euridicé Schofield