PSYCHOMYTHOLOGY- Series on Popular Myths about Psychology- 4

Myth 4. Mental Health professionals will confirm your worst fears, and the Psychiatric Labels in turn will cause Harm by stigmatizing me/my family.

 Mental health professionals confirming your worst fears- well what are they?

 Let’s list them one by one—

1. I’m crazy.

2. Once called crazy forever crazy.

3. If anyone knew I was seeing a mental health professional (MHP), they would automatically assume I have a mental health problem.

4. If anyone knew I have a mental health problem, they would not want to do anything with me or my family.

5. Why do MHP’s diagnose? Can’t they do without the sick label?

Then, there are other fears about the kind of treatment, the duration of it, effects, side effects etc.

Lets answer them one by one-

 The answer to fear 1-“If i see a shrink then I’m Crazy” is Myth 3. That was fast!

The answer to fear 2 “Once called crazy, always crazy”- several systems of classifying behavior came up when it became necessary to name clusters of behavioral symptoms. Based on ones problems a mental health professional (MHP) may give the problem a name based on any one of these systems. And they have a obligation to explain it to you (disclaimer- depends largely on the kind of problem. when you are out of touch with reality this may not be possible) However there are treatment options available, and the earlier you see a MHP, and follow up with them, the better chances of recovery, and a healthy fulfilling life without being crazy.

The answer to fear 3 “If anyone knew I was seeing a mental health professional (MHP), they would automatically assume I have a mental health problem.”

-Psychology deals with behavior (thought, action, emotion) as I mentioned in my earlier articles. It actually doesn’t distinguish between normal or abnormal behavior. It just studies behavior. But before psychology came into the picture, humans have already distinguished between 2 types of behavior –

 ‘Normal’ behavior- the kind that the majority engages in, thus more predictable and ‘supposedly’ causes little to no harm to self or others, does not affect your functionality.

 &

‘Abnormal’ behavior- the kind minority engages in and thus less predictable, may affect your functionality and ‘may’ cause harm to self or others.

Psychologists are bound by confidentiality clauses, and also no one needs to know if you want to keep it that way.

We humans always feared the unknown; we prefer a certain degree of control on our minds and in our lives as well and to an extent perceived the lack of control, predictability as weakness. Due to this and many other reasons Stigma arises.

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).

So it’s not the psych- consult or the diagnosis that MAY come after it, that harms you, rather STIGMA which has existed since ages.

In the past leprosy patients were stigmatized, they were considered cursed, untouchable, and to be suffering from an incurable malady. Today leprosy is understood to be a physical illness and treatment options are available. HIV patients are stigmatized to date, so are minority groups like the LGBT. But stigma always bows in front of knowledge. Once we know better about something, we understand we had been afraid for nothing!

The answer to fear 4 “If anyone knew I have a mental health problem, they would not want to do anything with me or my family.”

– Suppose that people in your life observed that you had an unshakable but utterly false belief that everybody was out to harm you. It’s likely that any stigma associated with your mental illness would exist, regardless of whether anybody knew you’d been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.  Don’t you think it’s better to seek treatment then, rather than give into stigma and aggravate the problem, which in turn increases stigma??

Rather than blaming stigma on psychiatric labels, Patrick Corrigan and David Penn (1999) discussed a number of more constructive ways to reduce stigma, including community-based educational and contact-oriented programs and compassionately conveying diagnoses in the context of humane and effective treatments.

Furthermore, several studies demonstrate that diagnostic labels can actually exert positive effects on stigma, probably because they provide observers with explanations for otherwise puzzling behaviors. In one study, peers rated essays written by children diagnosed with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorders more positively than those written by non-diagnosed children (Cornez-Ruiz & Hendricks, 1993). Similarly, Michelle Wood and Marta Valdez-Menchaca (1996) found positive effects of labeling children with expressive language disorder and suggested that a diagnostic label “may cause teachers to adopt a more supportive attitude toward the child … labeling can provide a more informative context in which to evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of a child with disabilities” (p. 587).

The history of clinical psychology and psychiatry reveals that as we come to better understand mental illnesses and as their treatment becomes more effective, stigma subsides. In the meantime, when individuals with mental illness experience stigma we should be careful not to place the blame where it doesn’t belong— namely, on psychiatric diagnoses that can help to identify the source of their suffering.

The answer to fear 5 “Why do MHP’s diagnose? Can’t they do without the sick label?”

– Psychiatric diagnoses play important roles that would be difficult to fulfill if we abandon them. Diagnoses are essential for many purposes, including communication among mental health professionals; the coordination of research activities around the world; the provision of mental health services; reimbursement from insurance companies; and connecting patients to the most effective treatments. The DSM isn’t perfect. Everyone knows that. We should make every effort to improve the existing psychiatric classification system, but attacking it on the unsupported grounds that diagnoses are stigmatizing is counterproductive.

So take away message guyz?

Simple just cause you see a Mental health professional (MHP) doesn’t mean you need to have a problem. You can see one, even if you want to make your life better than it actually is! Even if you do have a problem, the earlier you see the right professional, your chances of recovery are higher. So let not your fear of your neighboring aunty, of what she may gossip about you to the entire neighborhood, stop you from seeing one. If you don’t want them to know rest assured your MHP isn’t gonna come and take a loudspeaker and shout it out to your neighbors’! We have confidentiality clauses for god’s sake! Also our focus is to help, heal you or your loved ones’ minds not damage it further! Stigma will not change unless you change yourself.

Take care fret not, till next post, adios.

Reference-

50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior, 2009, by Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio, Barry L. Beyerstein.

Also,To spark your own curiosity, Check out ‘normal’ ‘behavior’ ‘normal behavior’ ‘ abnormal behavior’ on google! You will come to understand that ‘normal’ is relative to the group that defines it.