Perspectives..

Every time a client comes to me, they seem too overwhelmed with identifying what illness they have, and yet pray it isn’t anything to do with mental illness. That’s the paradox of my profession. People come to me to rule out they are ‘crazy’ than to accept that they have a problem, and that we can sort it out together. This most often happens due to the stigma related to mental health concerns. I’m not a medical doctor, but very simply put, a physical illness is resultant of a disorder of the body either inherently via genes, which either is directly affected and causes illness, or predisposes a person to develop one in the face of external agents like virus, bacteria etc . Depending on the nature of the illness they are either treatable or manageable. Biologically a mental health issue is a disorder of the body- due to genetic predispositions and/ or biochemical changes often triggered by external events like experiences. Depending on the nature of the illness they are either treatable or manageable. Thus there are a few but significant parallels between a physical and a psychological ailment. Despite which a psychological issue is often considered a sign of weakness, due to a lack of character or poor upbringing and hence to be hidden from others. That’s one perspective. The biological basis of behavior. That supports the belief that everything is predetermined. I don’t see a reason why a person should be blamed for his illness if that’s the case. Then there’s the nurture perspective, which supports behaviors- good or bad, adaptive or maladaptive develops as a result of learning, experiences, constant stress, living conditions, presence or the absence of a support system etc. I don’t see a reason why a person should be blamed for his illness if that’s the case as well. There’s yet another. The perspective to do with statistics. Here ‘normals’ are considered those who fall in the average spectrum, the majority. The rest are considered ‘abnormal’. Well are they? Statistically they are but deviations from the normal but the stigma associated with the word made it sound too serious, something to be ashamed of. Considering the same logic if anyone tries to be better than someone (which is what most people strive to) then they should be called abnormal as well cause the deviate from the average. They shouldn’t be called ‘special’ or ‘unique’. Lastly, the most important perspective. That of stigma. “Crocker et al. (1998) proposed that stigmatization occurs when a person possesses (or is believed to possess) “some attribute or characteristic that conveys a social identity that is devalued in a particular social context” (p. 505). Yes, stigma is nothing but the perspective people / society choose to believe in despite the evidence based ones. If that’s the case, who is to be blamed for the illness? The person or the perspective you choose to believe in? photo credits-http://www.healthyplace.com/insight/quotes/quotes-on-mental-illness-stigma/

#mentalhealth #mentalillness #stigma