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When it comes to illness, mental illness comes burdened with a heavy load of stigma.
There’s abundant prejudice that goes around which makes it harder for the sufferer to adapt to the world.
Fearing disapproval, they are prone to live secret lives, attempting to hide their symptoms which leads to isolation with all its negative consequences, chiefly, reduced social stimulation.
At the root of prejudice lies a propensity to devalue others, the effort to think of ourselves as better by comparison.
It is a common occurrence but we pay a price in that our humanity suffers.
Those who are wiser amongst us, make an effort to check themselves, but prejudice and the consequent stigmatization remain widespread.
I suppose the one doing the stigmatizing thinks something like this — ‘What’s wrong with them?
I don’t get it. They should stay out of sight, so as not to burden other people. Surely, there must be some fundamental flaw in their character. Better stay away, they may lose control and turn dangerous.’
But it’s different when kin are affected, when it happens in your family or to someone you know or love.
Then we’re more likely — though not always — to say, ‘something happened in their brains, it’s not their fault, something went wrong.’
It takes a determined effort.
I remember once hearing an otherwise intelligent person, who ironically had previously worked in a mental health setting, say in frustration about the mentally ill, ‘they…
