stigma Archives

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Welcome to the seventeenth day of the National Health Blog Post Month Challenge hosted by WEGO Health. Every day during the month of November I will be writing a new blog post related to health and living with a chronic illness based on given prompts provided by WEGO Health.

Today’s post reads:

Invisible Illness versus Visible Illness: What are some stigmas you have experienced with your invisible OR visible illnesses that have made you feel invisible? How have you tackled them?

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Etymologically the word ‘stigma’ derives from the Greek word stigma, meaning a mark of disgrace either made from branding or pointing. The mark was used to mark individuals who were seen as different, and by branding such individuals with visible marks it made it possible for society to avoid them. In modern times, although many groups of society are not marked in this way, they still are shunned by society. And those individuals living with illnesses; either visible or invisible are just one example of a group that are still being rejected by the wider society.

As I am someone who has lived through illness at times when it has been both invisible and visible, I can categorically state that stigma occurs in both of these categories. Obviously, when the illness is invisible, however, it is harder for people to stigmatise individuals with such conditions as you cannot tell that there is a problem with them, unless it has been divulged to them. These social networks however may be an example of a group that stigmatises an individual because of an invisible illness. For example, I know many people who constantly live with fatigue, and often as a result have to cancel appointments or plans with others because of it. Friends and acquaintances however do not tolerate or accept this behaviour as they cannot imagine or accept that tiredness can have such an adverse impact upon a person, and as result can perceive the individual as being lazy or uninterested in their friends.

We need supportive friends when living with an invisible illness and to be believed and supported

Also, with many invisible illnesses, those suffering with such conditions do not always look sick, and consequently many do not acknowledge the fact that they are in fact sick, and the term “But you look so good!” is therefore banded about. It is this lack of looking unwell, that results in many not believing a person when they do divulge that they are sick and has become one of the most common stigmas of invisible illnesses. Another common stigma associated with invisible chronic conditions is the train of thought that such individuals do not deserve such privileges such as a disabled blue badge; a stigma that I myself have faced on several occasions and have written about in a previous post entitled ‘Becoming Visible in an Invisible World‘.

Being in a wheelchair can make you feel as if you are invisible!

However, as I am at the stage where I need a wheelchair going out, my condition therefore is now much more visible, so what are the stigmas that I have faced whilst living with a visible chronic health condition? The first that I have really noticed is the feeling that the condition and disability is taking over my personal identity; the often feeling that people see me as the ‘girl in the wheelchair’ rather than the person I am. An example, of this is the fact that when I have been out recently, people often talk to my carer or the person I am with instead of talking directly to myself. This can be demoralising, and feels as if people perceive all individuals with disabilities as being unable to hold a conversation. My problem is with my legs and not my intellect, I often feel like screaming. It’s as if that because people need to look down on us, in the literal sense, then it must mean we all need to be pitied or looked down upon, metaphorically speaking.

When people do not talk to me directly, which I have encountered on numerous occasions, this definitely makes me feel very much invisible. The way I have tackled this problem, is by holding my head up high and starting conversations with people on checkouts; and in shops as a way of subtly letting them know that although I am in a wheelchair I do not need someone to talk for me; I find it does work and the same cashiers have not done it again!

Do you live with an invisible or visible health condition? What are some examples of stigma that you have personally faced? As ever would love to hear your thoughts and experiences as well as any other comments you may have! Feel free to comment below…

Welcome to another post of the WEGO Health ‘National Health Blog Post Month’!! It’s Day 21 so, the end is nearly nigh! I hope you are all enjoying the posts so far. Ready for the next one?

Today, I have chosen the prompt asking to write about mental health.

As you may now already know, I have a BSC in Psychology, and currently volunteer for a local Mental Health Charity, so this topic and area is of importance to me. I suppose, I decided to study Psychology at University and later to volunteer for a mental charity because of my own battles with mental health difficulties – that of depression and anxiety. But what I have found with studying Psychology, volunteering and living with mental health conditions myself is still the stigma attached with mental illness.

We have all been told the statistics – that 1 in 4 people will at some point suffer with a mental health conditions themselves. The statistic for the prevalence of dandruff, to compare is 1 in 5 people!! Fancy that, mental illness is more common than dandruff!! Yet, having dandruff doesn’t have the same negative stigma attached to it!!

In my 3rd year of University, I decided to study the stigma of mental health for my dissertation. The results were shocking, especially considering that the population that took part in my study were well-educated students; a generation that were supposed to be open-minded and less judgemental. However, after reading a statement regarding a hypothetical person with paranoid schizophrenia, this all changed. They deemed the person to be dangerous, less inclined to give the person a job and less inclined to give the person a place to live.

Schizophrenia although producing symptoms such as paranoia, voices inside their head, and often delusions, they are seldom a danger to others – in fact, after reading several pieces of research for my dissertation, a person with schizophrenia is more likely to be the victim of a violent attack than the perpetrator. So why the ever-increasing negative attitudes towards mental illness?

Well, it could be said that the majority of the blame could be placed at the media’s door. Although, it is said violent crimes carried out by patients exhibiting mental illness is said to be rare, there are however endless reports in the media, of patients, among them schizophrenic’s, being the perpetrators of such attacks – often resulting in the loss of life of members of the community. Although, these instances are rare, when they do occur however, they are headline news; published on the front papers with sensationalist headlines – making the connection of their mental illness and the crime.

So, although these crimes are rare, when they do occur and become headline news, they stick in our mind, therefore, making us think that they occur much more regularly than they actually do. This is known as the availability heuristic.

Perhaps, these false beliefs are also due to the lack of knowledge of such disorders – people simply, believe what they read or hear, without gaining all the facts. Fear born out of ignorance and misinformation, perhaps? Or perhaps, the mentally ill are so heavily stigmatised as they deviate from the norm, and as history has shown society has often marginalised people who are different from the society’s view as being ‘normal.’

So, how as we as health activists, and society as a whole start to destigmatise mental illness? Should media outlets encourage stories of mental illness in a positive way – show that there is hope for people who have been unwell from mental illness? To encourage celebrities and other well-known faces who has been inflicted with such illnesses, so that there is a face to mental illness; to make it less fearful and show that the mentally ill are not so different to the rest of us after all!

I have had the pleasure to meet, through my work as a volunteer to meet many wonderful people who have been touched with a mental illness, from depression to schizophrenia, and can say that they have been the most friendly and kind people I have come across.

So why still the stigma surrounding mental illness?

stigma

Being visibly invisible: The debate of stigma and invisible vs visible illnesses

NHBPM Day Twenty-One: Mental Health – Why the Stigma?

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