Together For Mental Health: Speaking Up And Stigma

[cc: An image that says, "I speak up about mental health, because it is just as physical health. Break the stigma, by Ayesha Tariq Ali.]

Our theme for this Mental Wellness Month is Speaking Up and Stigma. Unfortunately there is still a stigma associated with mental illnesses and conditions. Stigma in relation to mental illness involves negative attitudes or discrimination against someone based on a distinguishing characteristic such as a mental illness, health condition, or disability.

Stigma can cause delays in getting treatments, because people may feel scared of discrimination to speak up about their mental health and sometimes people in the medical field make assumptions due to stereotypes.

Ways stigma can be perpetuated:

-Media depictions in which the character with mental illness is the villain.

-Harmful stereotypes of people with mental illness.(e.g saying people with bipolar disorder are crazy or violent)

-Invalidating a person’s experience, i.e treating mental illness as something you can just ‘get over’ and ‘snap out of’

-Using phrases like ‘they are crazy’ or ‘nuts’ to describe a person or their behaviour.

Stigma against mental illness can make it difficult to find work, be included into society and develop relationships with people. By spreading awareness on the dangers of stigma, we hope that more people educate themselves on mental health conditions and learn to respect everyone they come across.

The disability sub-community aims to be a supportive place to receive support and stand together against stigma and prejudice against mental illnesses, disorders and disability. This week there will be various interactive forum discussions, support sessions and room activities to educate, support and strengthen our community.

• Standing Up and Breaking Stigmas
• This or That: Self-Care Edition

Interview Series: Inclusivity Diaries

• Sharing Our Mental Health Experiences

Room Discussions

• Support Game Event-Disability Support Room-May 18th @1PM EST (Teens)
• Sharing Our Mental Health Experiences - Disability Support Room - May 19th @ 7 PM EST (Adults)
• Support Session On Stigma-May 20th @2pm EST (Teens)

To earn a special event badge for this event, fill in this form (only once please). To see other sub-community posts for the Mental Wellness Month, click HERE.

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Edited by wonderfulRainbow817 to add in a discussion event - 5/16/2022