Even when help is just a click away, stigma is still a roadblock

That is the title of this article I am reviewing today. "Stigma is a major barrier preventing people with mental health issues from getting the help they need. Even in a private and anonymous setting online, someone with greater self-stigma is less likely to take that first step to get information about mental health concerns and counseling, according to a new Iowa State University study. Daniel Lannin, lead author, psychology graduate student and clinical intern at ISU's Student Counseling Service, says self-stigma is a powerful obstacle to overcome. The study was designed specifically to measure how participants responded when given the opportunity to learn more online about mental health concerns and university counseling services. Of the 370 college students who participated in the study, only 8.7 percent clicked the link for mental health information and 9 percent sought counseling information. However, those numbers dropped to 2.2 percent and 3.5 percent respectively, among people with high self-stigma. 'It's not just the fear of seeing a counselor or therapist,' Lannin said. 'It's actually when people are sitting at home or on their phone. That stigma prevents them from even learning more information about depression or about counseling.'"Wow this has not been in the news for awhile now.  I've done a lot of posts about stigma.  It happened to me when I was first diagnosed and told people I had a mental illness.  It just does not come up for me because I have not had to tell anyone that I have a mental illness.
The article goes on to say:  "The results, published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology, illustrate the need for better stigma interventions, he said. Lannin is developing and testing different online interventions, but it's difficult because such efforts are often rejected. 'A lot of people with higher levels of stigma won't even entertain the possibility of a stigma intervention because they see the intervention as going to therapy to be more open to therapy,' Lannin said. 'It's like telling someone who doesn't like vegetables to eat some broccoli to get over it.' Lannin knows that interventions work. In a previous study, he found participants were more open to receiving help-seeking information after writing a brief essay about a personal value. He says the challenge is designing the intervention so it's not threatening to a person with greater stigma.
College is a time when mental illness is often diagnosed
One in five people struggle with mental illness, and many don't get help, Lannin said. Those who do wait an average of 11 years, before finally seeking treatment. Lannin says distressed students in the study were more likely to click the link for information (8.5 percent probability for those with high self-stigma, compared to 17.1 percent for those with low self-stigma). Distress is like the gas pedal and stigma the brake, he said. Unfortunately, by the time someone reaches a high level of distress, he or she is often struggling to function.'" The reason I do not tell anyone because it can exclude me from housing as it has it the past when I told the landlord I had  a mental illness. It happens with this blog if I were to make it public as I have done in the past they will not click on it.
The article ends: "'Identifying distressed students can be difficult because distress affects people in different ways. The main thing we notice is impairment in functioning across multiple spheres. They struggle with school work or with family relationships and friendships. If it gets bad enough, they might struggle with hygiene or start strongly contemplating suicide,' Lannin said. 'It's not just that they feel bad; it's that functionally they're impaired.' According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, three-quarters of all chronic mental illness begins by age 24. Lannin says for many young adults this is a time of transition -- going to college, working full-time and moving away from home -- adding to the reasons they may not seek help. This is another consideration when designing interventions and educational information, Lannin said. In the paper, Lannin and his colleagues suggested adding brief self-affirmation activities to websites frequented by at-risk populations, as well as links to additional mental health and treatment information. Self-affirmation interventions could also be incorporated into outreach events organized by university counseling centers.'" Suicide and mental illness a person does not understand what is happening to them and they feel suicide is the only way to stop what is happening.  I wrote about suicide in an earlier post.  I think the guilt of when a person commits suicide is the hardest thing because you realize if I had only said this or done this maybe that would have helped. Life is hard enough if without the guilt.  The latest suicide was my ex-wife on my moms birthday May sixteenth of last year.  It is hard to understand.

Schizophrenia: the most misunderstood mental illness?

That is the title of this article I am writing about.  “Schizophrenia affects over 220,000 people in England and is possibly the most stigmatized and misunderstood of all mental illnesses.  While mental health stigma is decreasing overall, thanks in large part to the Time to Change anti stigma campaign which we run with Mind, people with schizophrenia are still feared and demonized.  Over 60 per cent of people with mental health problems say the stigma and discrimination they face is so bad, that it’s worse than the symptoms of the illness itself.  Stigma ruins lives.  It means people end up suffering alone, afraid to tell friends, family and colleagues about what they’re going through.  This silence encourages feelings of shame and can ultimately deter people from getting help.” I would like to be judged for me, not my mental illness. Even though I am highly functioning I do not tell people I have a mental illness.  I figure life is hard enough if you tell them you have a mental illness they stop talking to you and judge how you act.

Let’s let someone else explain what happens: “Someone who knows firsthand how damaging this stigma can be is 33 year old Erica Camus, who was sacked from her job as a university lecturer, after her bosses found out about her schizophrenia diagnosis, which she’d kept hidden from them.  Erica was completely stunned.  ‘It was an awful feeling.  The dean said that if I’d been open about my illness at the start, I’d have still got the job.  But I don’t believe him.  To me, it was blatant discrimination.’  She says that since then, she’s become even more cautious about being open. ‘I’ve discussed it with lots of people who’re in a similar position, but I still don’t know what the best way is.  My strategy now is to avoid telling people unless it’s come up, although it can be very hard to keep under wraps.’”  To lose your job because you have a mental illness that you keep under control is wrong.  I believe we are just like anyone else except we have to take medication to keep us this way.
The article goes on to say: “I think part of the problem is that most people who have never experienced psychosis, find it hard to imagine what it’s like.  Most of us can relate to depression and anxiety, but a lot of us struggle to empathise with people affected by schizophrenia.  Another problem is that when schizophrenia is mentioned in the media or portrayed on screen, it’s almost always linked to violence.  We see press headlines about ‘schizo’ murders and fictional characters in film or on TV are often no better.  Too often, characters with mental illness are the sinister baddies waiting in the shadows, they’re the ones you’re supposed to be frightened of, not empathise with.  This is particularly worrying in light of research by Time to Change, which found that people develop their understanding of mental illness from films, more than any other type of media.  These skewed representations of mental illness have created a false association between schizophrenia and violence in the public imagination.  In reality, violence is not a symptom of the illness and those affected are much more likely to be the victim of a crime than the perpetrator.”  I believe there is more violence done under the influence of alcohol than schizophrenia.  I know firsthand because since I was diagnosed with schizophrenia I have not been arrested for nothing I have not even been stopped and this is a person who was always in jail for something stupid done under the influence. I would not even have gone to the state hospital if it wasn’t for alcohol. Most people do not act upon their delusions, although there are a few that do that is why all the bad media. Please read the entire story at the link it has more.

Stigma and Self Stigma

It still is out there stigma.  This article talks about being resilient and I believe all people with a mental illness are resilient.  Just look what we came through a mental illness.  I know for a fact that it was the worst thing I had ever been through.  Why are there so many stigmas then?  How can a person go from being sane one day and then wake up and they have a mental illness?  I was in prison when my mental illness reared its ugly head.  That is the last place anyone would want to wake up a paranoid schizophrenic.  It is a shame that a person cannot be viewed for what they do in this world and not be defined as crazy because they have a mental illness.
I for one am highly functioning person with a mental illness.  I do not disclose I have a mental illness because an incident happened at my apartment building.  When my fridge was acting up it was hard enough getting them to replace it.  If they would have knew that I had a mental illness I would have been laughed at and never would have it replaced.  It is hard enough getting things done without a mental illness.  I remember when I first starting looking for apartments I told the landlady at one that I had a mental illness and she stopped talking to me and just talked to my sister who went with me.  I know I am not the only one.  I know for a fact there are a lot of people that are higher functioning that do not disclose that they have a mental illness not that they are ashamed but because the way people react to the news.
When they say diversity is that not all people no matter how they act or if they are different.  Why do ones quirks become different when that person has a mental illness?  Then they are just crazy if they do something different than the average person.  When they just grew up different than you or I in this world so of course they would be different.  Mental illness changes a person and they have to adjust to being different.  They are not only viewed different also they have changed inside or outside.  They may now have negative symptoms they have to deal with.  They now have to take medication every day.  Just to lead a fairly normal life then they have to put up with all the negative press and people.
I look forward to the day when there is no more stigma or self-stigma. Life is hard enough dealing with the fact that you just came through something that a normal person never has to go through.  If you can become a success that would be the best way to answer back I am ok. Life does go on and hopefully a person continues to grow even if they have a mental illness and just deal with life as it is.

Recession Hit Those with Mental Health Problems the Hardest

That is the title of this article  I am reviewing. Last week we talked about Social Cognition and employment now we will talk about how the recession hit those with mental illness harder than the rest of the population. “Unemployment rates for people with mental health problems rose more than twice as much than for people without mental health problems during the recession, according to new research.” Is it stigma again that is the cause of this problem? It would be some form of why they would not want to hire you because you have a mental illness.

They also found out that: “Researchers from King’s College London also found that this gap in employment rates was even greater for men and for those with low levels of education.  For the study, the researchers collected data in 27 European Union countries from more than 20,000 people in 2006 and again in 2010.  Using the Eurobarometer survey, the assessed mental health, stigmatizing attitudes, socio-demographic information, such as age, gender, education level, and current employment rate.”  This study was done in Europe does it have the same effect on the recession her in the United States?  Either way someone is prejudice against people with mental illness.
The article goes on to say: “At the start of the study, unemployment was at 7.1 percent for people without mental health problems, compared to 12.7 percent for people with mental health problems.  In 2010, this rose to 9.8 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively.  This corresponds to an increase of 5.5 percent for people with mental health problems. The economic recession has had enormous impact across much of Europe, but there is little information about specific impact of the recession on groups who are already vulnerable to social exclusion specifically people with mental health problems.”  That is a lot of people who need money to make it in this world.  It has to be hard knowing just because you have a mental illness they are prejudice against you making any money working.
The article says: “During periods of economic recession, attitudes to people with mental health problems may harden, further deepening social exclusion, …Governments need to be aware of these risks, and employers need to be aware of their legal duty to comply with Equality Act to support people with mental health problems coming into, and staying in, employment.” It should be whether or not there is a recession.  If you would like to work there should be no discrimination.  “Do any of you readers have any experiences related to the impact of the recession on their job hunting or job stability?”

Conflicting Public Attitudes to Schizophrenia

That is the title of this article.  Although before I go into this in my last blog about hope a couple of weeks ago I wrote how it was hard on my daughter and she just had to keep up the hope.  Well in the last week she had two good things happen to her and she is not stressed and I do not have to be a sounding board and not be able to help.  She was really stressed at time wanting to just give up but she has three kids and could not.  I am really happy that she is not stressed no more and that she quit one job and has weekends off finally.

Now we just have to keep hoping that the stigma gets better.  That is what this article talks about conflicting attitudes towards schizophrenia. “People are becoming more ready to accept a biologic explanation for schizophrenia, shows a German study spanning 21 years.  On the other hand, the study participants became less comfortable with patients who have the condition, with more people interviewed in 2011 wishing to keep a social distance than in 1990.”  We are ready to accept that it is biological although keep away from me.  This study was finished three years ago.  I thought some things would have changed by now.
This is the hardest part of the study as people with schizophrenia need jobs also to make it in this world. “For example, the proportion of people who would not recommend a schizophrenia patient for a job rose from 44% to  63% (the largest increase) and the proportion who would not allow a schizophrenia patient to look after their children rose from 67% to 79% (the highest rate).” The last one would not let a schizophrenic look after their children.  It is not passed on like a cold.  Stigma has a long way to go yet.
There looks like there is some good news with this study: “However, participants were markedly more ready to recommend professional mental health services to people with any of the conditions.  There were large, significant increases in the proportion of participants who would encourage patients to see a psychiatrist or a psychotherapist, and who would recommend psychotropic medication and psychotherapy.  Seemingly, the changes that have taken place in psychiatry over the past decades have benefited the image of psychiatry, but have failed to improve the image of patients. Say the researchers.  Further efforts are necessary to combat the stigmatization and discrimination of people with mental illness.” I read some of the sites of people with schizophrenia that they even talk what is recovery?  I heard about but have not met no one that is recovered.  I feel I know for a fact that I am not alone in being recovered.
I remember in college a professor telling me her cousin was a lawyer and they had a magazine of people that were successful that had a mental illness. Unless we tell they will never know that we have a mental illness.  Because I look just like anybody and you would not know it. Here is a link to an article on IQ it might be interesting.

Changing Reality Through Mental Health

In the beginning of my experience with the Mental Health system, I had many, many thoughts concerning why I was becoming a part of this new experience, what had I done that warranted my taking group therapy, and taking medications.  After many years of being a homeless person and a drug addict I slowly began to reason that someone other than my own self cared and this turned me around as to how I thought about people and how people saw me.

We read and hear about Mental Health and how it may be the new wave of modern times.  There are clients (consumers), and others outside of mental health that don’t think so, at least not many of them, yet mental illness affects millions of people every year in America; whose to judge. Most people who need mental health assistance, having become diagnosed or not, rarely receive the help they need and the reason is money and of course their own feelings of receiving mental health assistance in short, shame.

Because Mental Health has a stigma of its own coupled with its high cost, many people despair; while others become lost.  They say Mental Health these days needs a new uplifting, where there would be a newer point of view as to how people can see their lives and how their challenges can be approached.  We are all potentially under the guise of being mental health patients, we all have concerns, issues and problems we don’t care to admit to.  Our challenges may make us weak or feel imperfect and threaten our way of survival; yet when we see these are categorized and labeled as “symptoms” of mental illness, we turn and run in denial because we have lived a certain way for a certain time.

The attitudes of society about Mental Health and its culture, threatens us every day, more than the issues we are dealing with and with this, many prefer to suffer in their own way rather than to be known as suffering from a mental illness, and so many others who may be suffering from a mental illness go to extremes to obtain drugs, illicit or prescribed instead of becoming labeled, move on to live in their perfect world.

Mental health is set in motion by good will, professionalism, empathy and caretakers who treat our malignancies or disorders not knowing the feelings that are brought down upon us.  There are solutions which can help a person who suffers from a mental illness which help to maintain an emotionally healthy way of life.  It’s simple.  If we converse, we will find these conversations the necessity of our emotional well being, and that missing link can improve the early-stages of mental health care.  Conversation is constructive and has always been proven to be therapeutic to help others become empowered and to become a part of the social structure, instead of withdrawn and living a life in despair.  We become constructive through conversing about our ideas and problems and we move forward from the old reality of suffering into the new reality of acceptance and self-esteem not only of ourselves yet of the Mental Health system itself. 

Written by Donald S

American Giving Awards

This show was on air Saturday night.  Glenn Close received a special recognition award. Her organization is called Bring change 2 mind.  Her organization tries to change the stigma surrounding mental illness.  Glenn’s sister is bipolar and her nephew is schizoaffective.  Her nephew was diagnosed first.  Her family before this happened had never brought up the word or had knowledge of mental illness.  She received her award and talked as did her sister.  It was not discussed in my family either.  She also appeared on the Today show.  I have felt the stigma regarding my illness.  I do not like it when people will stop talking to me because I have a mental illness.

We do need more people like Glenn Close to fight the stigma.  If I did not hate it when I am mentally ill, I would say this illness has changed me for the better.  When I won my appeal and was released from prison.  I wanted to stop drinking and did not drink with my friends and found out we had nothing in common but our drinking.  I could not do it on my own and within two weeks I was drinking again.  This illness gave me a second chance at changing my life. They gave out award to quite a few charity organizations.  One thing I was impressed with was when they talked about hope.  You just put one foot in front of the other and keeping going forward that is what they said.It reminded me of when I had to go to an AA meeting when I was at the state hospital.  The meeting was a mile away and I had to walk and this night there was a bad snow storm.  When I finally made it back to the state hospital I was frozen my mustache was ice.  Although I did it when I crawled into bed, I had proved I would do anything to get out of that place.  You might wonder why I hate the state hospital so much.  It is because of all the freedom there you can wear street clothes; you can meet girls on the grounds and talk to them.  You can go to the cafeteria and buy a hamburger or any meal you would like.  You carried money and with passes could go out to eat or a store.  What kind of lock up is that if I did not hate it?  I would have been there for ten year or longer if I liked the place.
Hope is never giving up just keep pushing forward something has to change or break.  You have to hold on to that dream and not let anything stop you from reaching it.  It took me a long time in college, although I knew one day I would graduate.  Then something that was not planned was getting my Master’s.  It happened a lot faster in getting that.  That is good because it was time to go to work.  We need more shows that show people succeeding when they have a mental illness. I know there is a lot of success out there.  Recovery and success can happen.  American giving awards was a good show to watch.  To see all the organizations that try at help bring change to so many lives.

Older Adults with Schizophrenia Can Achieve Remission

The title says schizophrenia can be in remission and that is good news for when we get older. “Many older adults with a history of chronic schizophrenia can have sustained remission if they receive appropriate psychosocial stimulation and support, according to Dr. Dilip V. Jeste.  Schizophrenia is a less important barrier to successful aging than are societal attitudes, health care disparity and scientific or clinical biases, said Dr. Jeste, president of the American Psychiatric Association and chief of geriatric psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).”  To me that sounds good because the last thing I would want is to be a burden because I have this disease.  I would love to live independent for the rest of my life.
They talk about the things that can help: “Optimizing pharmacotherapy, psychosocial interventions, diet, and exercise; curbing substance abuse; and adopting a positive approach on the part of clinicians, patients, and their families can help people with schizophrenia move gently into old age, Dr. Jeste said.” If I keep doing the things I am doing I should be successful.  I am not planning on getting a car.  Walking and taking the bus are important to me.  I would like to continue to be able to walk at least a mile when I would like no matter what age I am.  The article goes on to say: “Currently, people with chronic schizophrenia face many obstacles to successful aging, including stigma, poverty, and lack of insurance.  But they also face long-held biases of some scientists and clinicians who regard schizophrenia as intractable, as well as facing physical comorbidities such as metabolic syndrome, see in one study in 60% of middle-aged and older individuals with schizophrenia (J. Clin. Psychopharmacol. 2009; 29:10-5).In another study, investigators found that the Framingham 10-year risk of coronary heart disease rose by nearly 80% in middle-aged and older patients with schizophrenia (Schizophr. Res. 2001; 125:259-9). Dr. Jeste noted.”  All those obstacles are hard to get rid of when you cannot get out of the house for lack of money is one.  Negative symptoms are another obstacle that is not easy to get rid of.
The article also says: “People with schizophrenia characteristically have higher levels of stress, tobacco use, and alcohol and substance use, and are more likely to have a sedentary lifestyle.  These factors often are exacerbated by poor health care, in addition to the biology of schizophrenia itself.  Also, schizophrenia patients are affected by the adverse effects associated with medications such as atypical antipsychotics, which often are associated with weight gain and increased risk for type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and other cardio and cerebrovascular disorders.  For these reasons, mortality in schizophrenia is higher than in the general population.” I know schizophrenics smoke because of the calming effect.  I was able to quit, I do not know if it was the side effects from the wellbutrin that I only took for thirty days because they were too much that helped me quit.  The other reasons are I had to have my grandchildren come visit in a smoke free house.
The last of the article says: “UCSD investigators have looked at more than 1,400 middle-aged and older people with schizophrenia, nearly 80% of whom had prodromal symptoms of the disorder before the age of 40.  In longitudinal follow-up with clinical, neuropsychological, and functional evaluations, the investigators found that people with schizophrenia who were adequately treated had a relatively stable course, improvement over time in psychotic symptoms, and a rate of age-related cognitive change similar to that of people without schizophrenia (Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 2003; 107:336-43).  As would be expected, people with schizophrenia experienced declines in physical health, but they also reported improvements in mental health, as measured by self-rated quality of life, the authors found. (Schizophr. Res. 2009:108: 207-13).”  It is always good to follow through and do well in treatment.  Still it would be nice once the stigma goes away if it ever does.  We age the same as the rest of the population.  Although it looks like our mental health is better with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia no Barrier

In this article a successful community nurse could not find a support group for people like her.  She was diagnosed with schizophrenia. “Two and a half years ago, I came to Manitoba Schizophrenia Society and asked whether they had a support group for working professionals like myself living with schizophrenia, and when they  said not, Chris Summerville, the executive director of the society, said ‘Why don’t you start one?’”  She had a good idea.  It would make a person wonder just how many working professionals have schizophrenia or a mental illness.  They probably do not have time during the day to go online and to the forums that are set up for people with schizophrenia or mental illness.
The article goes on to say: “So Barb, who was diagnosed in 1997, created the Partners in Awareness group at the society, a peer support  group made up of dynamic Manitoba professionals living with schizophrenia.  When she isn’t working, Barb volunteers her time facilitating the group, which meets the first Tuesday of every month.”  She created the group and even volunteers in it.  How would she get people to join?  Where would she find the professionals?
It says: “it’s been hard, at times, to get the message out because there is so much stigma, it’s so large and overwhelming, that a lot of people keep their diagnosis a secret, they want to stay in the closet.  But we’ve put posters out and had a public service announcement on CTV.”  When I was in college a professor told me her cousin a lawyer had a mental illness and they had a magazine out for professionals.  Although I never found this magazine, and there does have to be professionals that have this disease.  I do know it is not the online schizophrenia magazine online.
How does she deal with the stigma? “Barb understands the struggle to overcome stigma first-hand. ‘My dad said I was lazy, and my brother said ‘just snap out of it; just flip on the switch and you’ll be fine.’ So it’s hard when you’re getting that kind of response from your own family,” says Barb. ‘And then, with the Vince Li case (the man who beheaded a sleeping passenger on a Greyhound bus), that put us back years, just when we were starting to gain some ground.’” In my case, I was lucky my family stuck by me and every time I face stigma I usually show them who it is giving me the stigma.  I faced stigma at a pharmacy and showed my mom how they treated me.  I changed that pharmacy.
The article says: “I guess what people need to know about schizophrenia is, a s long as a person is compliant with taking medication, you can fulfill your life; you can have the same dreams and aspirations as someone living without it,’ says Barb, ‘because even with my mental illness, I’ve obtained two bachelor’s degrees—a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of nursing.  And I obtained the bachelor of nursing after I was diagnosed with schizophrenia.”  It is good to hear about people who did this after they were diagnosed.  I also received my bachelors and masters after I was diagnosed.  Here is the blog. You can also check us out at http://mhcd.org/blog

Searching for a New Scene

BEFORE I GET INTO The BLOG, I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND OUR READERS THAT The RECOVERY BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW LOCACTION: OUR BLOG WILL CONTINUE FROM OUR NEW HOME:  http://www.mhcd.org/blog “We give thought to whom we are, and we live by our feelings”. Discrimination (mentalism) is linked to negligence in our use of medications and other interventions within our minds as mental health consumers. Almost every day I hear complaints from mental health clients who place the blame of their existing conditions on their use of prescribed medications and having to take their time to attend group sessions which are meant to help them overcome their conditions. This somewhat leads to the neglect, and/or disrespect of people who are going out of their way to help the weary and downtrodden and mentally ill, who are suffering from experiences, abuse or trauma. Discrimination, stigma, mentalism are not only suffered by the mentally ill, the reality of it seemingly is as a mental health client myself is that it is harbored by consumers as well. This adds up to a poor or unstable future for a client, which can be taken as a pessimistic view, because of a bad clinical experience, which carried on or was backed by other experiences of other consumers.
Mentalism is a form of discrimination and oppression against someone because of a mental trait or condition they have or are judged to have. This is seen as a complex social inequality in power and can result in mistreatment, insults or indignity. Mentalist attitudes (mentalism or stigma) can influence how people are treated by the public or even deeper still can be implanted by other existing institutions, including the legal system. The use of the word mentalism is not in great use such as the phrase social stigma.
It is the false belief about Mental Illness which causes problems in relationships, education and employment amongst the mentally ill and the public. “Though we have listed some of the negative attitudes towards the mentally ill and of the mentally ill as well, we must always be aware when someone judges you, not only because of your race, educational background or economic status; they are also judging your mentality and your experiences. There are harmful effects due to discrimination and /or stigma in this society, the greatest of them is that you cannot succeed or improve yourself. This is all wrong, considering we live in a changing world where we are all related by a commonality called “life”.
I recently began a part time job, where I must be in contact with various mental health consumers. I was afraid they would see me as an employee, and they did, until I mentioned that I was a consumer with a mental illness and surprisingly I received more visitations at my work station because I faced the fact I was just as human as the other clients. I had faced the doubt and shame I bore of my personal weakness and found that I can work with other people, no matter the background they have. I find my self-esteem is to be praised and without judgment of negativity as much. I now have a “don’t say I am but an…I have… attitude when speaking about my illness and this gives me strength over my illness and helps me to accept my condition and to know what to do to make things better, through support and helping others as well.By Donald S.
JUST A REMINDER THAT THE RECOVERY BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW ADDRESS: OUR NEW HOME IS: http://mhcd.org/blog

Stigma, Employment and the Mentally Disabled

There is a movement within the mental health system. This movement is to overcome the stigma associated with mental illness. Since 1990 it was seen that stereotypes and ignorance was great in association with the mentally ill. People avoided living with, associating, socializing, working with and renting to or even employing people with any kind of mental disorder. Stigma leads to discrimination and abuse both physically and verbally and it causes isolation and loss of hope.
People with mental illness are most often poor and often rely upon or are dependent on government income, rent subsidies, food stamps and hospital care. The unemployment rate was about 90% for those with disabilities and mental disorders and this was in 1992. Yet the standard of living and employment are growing, being associated with better clinical help and a better quality of life. Individuals with mental disorders who had employment were found to do better, with reduced symptoms than those who remained unemployed. “The focus throughout was also not only upon the consumer yet also on orientation into the work force and training of supervisors and support for both consumers and employees.
• Overcome Stigma:
“Powerful and pervasive, stigma prevents people from acknowledging their own mental health problems, much less disclosing them to others. For our Nation to reduce the burden of mental illness, to improve access to care, and to achieve urgently needed knowledge about the brain, mind, and behavior, stigma must no longer be tolerated. Research on brain and behavior that continues to generate ever more effective treatments for mental illnesses is a potent antidote to stigma. The issuance of this Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health seeks to help reduce stigma by dispelling myths about mental illness, by providing accurate knowledge to ensure more informed consumers, and by encouraging help seeking by individuals experiencing mental health problems”.
While this exist, the social services and vocational rehabilitation strive to overcome the high levels of unemployment in the mental health sector where in many consumers were unable to work or did not want to work which was due to education and also interruptions by cause of symptoms interference, discrimination, not to mention jobs which do not pay well. Stigma and discrimination has a street which divides the wealth and the poor and the mentally ill and disabled. Strength is what is spoken of a lot at MHCD (Mental Health Center of Denver) and hope in overcoming the disabilities not to forget about faith, which is what is demonstrated to create change.
These are not my own words, these words are the excerpts from a speech on Stigma, Employment and Mental Health by the Surgeon General, September 2011, find hope and reassurance there is aspiration in what can be through faith.

Written by Donald Sammons

Andrew Steward: Beating Mental Illness

This talk was given at University of Denver. He excelled at school as a youngster. He even went to school in Ecuador, because he cared about poverty. Now he is a music student at DU. There is a middle chapter in his life and in that chapter he has a mental illness. He asks the question “What do you think of when you hear mental illness? Are you scared of it?” His mental illness started in 2005 he heard voices in his head and believed religious things that were related to his religion that were not based on reality. He was going to college in California and had taken a big load and he literally burned out, and that brought on his mental illness. One night in class he got the idea that Jesus was coming back eminently, so he got up left his backpack in the classroom and drove for five hours to the mountains to escape God’s wrath and the end of the world. “I know it sounds crazy that’s because it really was.” He was staring at the sky the entire time on literally some of the busiest interstates in America in southern California. He was being honked at by endless cars. “I honestly should have died in a tragic car accident this is what happens when mental illness descends upon someone they start to live in their own world.” His family and friends were starting to worry about him. His loving parents came out to pick him up and take him home. “You have to understand though, I thought I was totally fine.” It did not go over well with his father though you see his father is a trained Psychotherapist. He told him, he did not want to go home. He was told the only other option was to go to a mental hospital. “I don’t know what you guys have heard about mental hospitals but there pretty scary, and in my opinion there as bad as prisons. His roommate at the hospital said he was God, and that he was going to kill him. “Talk about not being able to sleep at night.” When he returned home from the hospital, the voice in his head was his roommates. Still it was talking to him, and telling him how to run his life. Over the coming months he would take pills that basically did not work. Then one day in the fall of 2006, he was in a really bad car accident and the very next day he lost his job. It shook him up considerably as it would anyone. He began to regress again. This time he began to see things that were not real. He began to see a snake. “I want you to imagine what this was like for me one minute I want you to put yourself in my shoes.” He saw a snake that was in front of his chest. “This snake would coil up all day long and continually biting my heart over and over again.” He was screaming profanities at the snake. “But I literally believed that the snake was Satan and I was being attacked by the devil himself, it was torture.” He also saw fire. “One day I woke up and there was so much fire in my parents’ house, which I spent the entire day in the back corner of my parent’s bathroom.” It was the only place in the house without fire. “Now I bet you are all wondering how I got better.” The pills were not working they had him take an injection every two weeks. Which did work, and he was better. “But you know what really did the trick I began to love myself for the first time in my life when I got better.” He was a perfectionist that had tried to drive himself too hard, and push himself too hard. “I think that’s what got me into trouble.” When he learned the value of caring for himself and to nurture himself, and at times put himself first even if it meant the end result of caring for others. “I think that is how I improved.” There are some ways in which his illness affects him these days. By the side effects of medications, after he has been taking antipsychotics for three years, he gained a hundred pounds. He has since lost fifty of those pounds. “But it is definitely one of the effects of treatment.” If you think his life was hell though then think of the effects on his family. “You see when my parents were there for me nobody was there for my parents.” Everybody who they counted on and were there before simply vanished. He asks the question when someone breaks their arm, we write on their cast, when someone has a mental illness we run the other way. “Why is that? I am going to bust a myth for you guys now, and ask is that violence is not common in mental illness, let me repeat that violence is not common in mental illness, my general personal opinion is that it is about as common in the general population actually.” He has compiled a list of people who have struggled with mental illness that has interfered in their lives. “This list includes Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Michelangelo, Beethoven, Leo Tolstoy, and Ernest Hemingway, and the list goes on.” The list looks to him as of people that have influenced our society more than anyone else. It is also a list of people who have struggled with major depression, who at times have become suicidal. They have struggled with bipolar disorder, and who have struggled with schizophrenia and multiple personality disorders. “Are you really afraid of these people? Are you really afraid of me?” He is not going to deny the fact though that there are times that people are tortured in their head by voices for years, and years. They eventually give into their delusions and do things which are harmful to others. He says, “we all remember what happened in Tucson, Arizona when Jared Loughner killed himself, and several other people, and severely wounding representative Gabby Gifford’s, was Jared receiving the love that he needed? I believe he was receiving some, but I don’t think he was getting what he needed. There is hope though even in this most dire circumstances, and that is this is noticed after the tragedy everybody was asking all over the country all over the world why did this happen, and what can we do to prevent it from happening in the future.” This shows there is hope and people are talking about mental illness, even if for no other reason than they do not want these things to happen in the world any longer. Mental illness also affects our society in another way, and that is homelessness. “Studies show that about forty percent of homeless people are also mentally ill, I don’t have all the answers to homelessness in our society, but obviously these issues are interrelated and if we help one, we will help the other. There are guys like me who fall through the cracks.” His message today is yes we need to bring awareness to this issue yes we need to stop the stigma in its tracks. “ We need to pull it out from under the carpet.” We have been hiding it was too long and that is not helping things, but most importantly I want you to know if you are out there and going through what I went through, you are not alone.” He is going to end with a story about Jared Loughner. He noticed another thing after the tragedy. “I saw on the news a reporter interviewing Jared’s neighbors from high school. They said Jared was actually a pretty vibrant young man, who played the saxophone in the high school jazz band. They said that beautiful music would come from Jared’s house at night, and then one night the music stopped, you see Jared’s not all that different from me. I play the flute in high school, beautiful music would come from my house every night too, but I am back and I’m here as a living testament to show that people can, and do get better from mental illness. If you’re out there and going through what he went through or you know someone who is, fight for them as they are fighting their way out of it, because when you do your fighting for a guy like me, Thanks.” A lot of things hit home for me in this YOUTUBE video. To me mental illness is torture, and Jared Loughner is still going through it. I think that was the hardest being stuck in the county jail and not getting treatment for my mental illness.

Self-Stigma

To know that people who label the mentally ill with stigma, can be hard enough on a person. Although when there is self-stigma it can even be worse. One reason might be that you will not seek treatment, because you do not want the stigma of being labeled mentally ill. How would you even begin the road to recovery if you cannot rise above the low self-esteem of being labeled mentally ill? I have mentioned this in a prior blog. I could not face what happened to me when I was in prison and became mentally ill. My friends were there to help me and stick by me. I could not accept what was happening to me or even understand what was happening to me. One reason is a long time before when I was in prison I had seen a person come back to the general population of prison after he had a mental illness. I remember him telling people he was sorry about having a mental illness. That is a memory I always keep and wonder about. Here is a very well written article on self-stigma it talks about when stigma comes from within. Self-stigma can hamper you from doing the things, you would like to do. Like beginning the road to recovery or looking for work. You have a low self-image of yourself. Some of the articles I have read about stigma, say that stigma might be increasing, with every time something happens in the news and movies portraying people with a mental illness as crazy killers or such. It makes it harder to remove stigma from people’s minds. There are articles talking about how people in recovery can start telling their story of how they became mentally ill, and how they recovered. I believe this way has a better chance of removing stigma. They can see from your story how you became mentally ill and the road a person took to recover. Personally I think it will be a long time before mental illness is accepted and belief that people can recover from a mental illness although I am hopeful.

Stigma and Self-Stigma

I have written about stigma in prior blogs. Although not self-stigma, I believe it will be a long time before people with a mental illness will be accepted. Then they will be able to recover without stigma. I know from my years in college and lately researching about mental illness and recovery. There are a lot of people whom have recovered and are lawyers and such. Some tell they have a mental illness, although most do not. When celebrities and famous people tell about their mental illness it helps a lot. Here is such an article of 15 Famous People who’ve helped Demystify Depression. It is good. I encourage you to click on the links of each and see how they are trying to help end stigma. Now I will discuss self-stigma and you can read a very good article about self-stigma. It also has a very good definition of what stigma is. It is hard enough to deal with stigma from others. When you start believing what they say and turn that inward it is very sad. I do not believe that you can fully recover if you are believing that you are incompetent or other things they might say about people with a mental illness. I do believe that someday people with a mental illness will be accepted. I still believe that day is long in coming. Until then do not turn that stigma into self-stigma.

More on Stigma

I know I just wrote about stigma, although what I’ve read on the news lately has taken mental illness recovery back three steps. I believe it is hard enough for people with mental illness. You do not even want to mention you have a mental illness even if you are recovered and doing well. An article like this one called: “Don’t Look Away” has brought stigma back to the fore front. The article states don’t look away or the stranger next to you might kill you if they have a mental illness. The article says one of the reasons that there are these random acts of violence is because of underfunding. Who wants to fund places that serve people who are represented so unfavorably? This article is talking about California. In the state of Washington they printed an article similarly titled the same thing “Don’t Look Away”. One of the articles in that says: “State pays in Blood for Flawed Mental Health System”. If I were to read this and not have a mental illness I would not see the underfunding. I would see that the mentally ill are dangerous. I believe like anything else that does not make the news. Are there articles or new stories about people who have recovered and are doing well in society? That kind of news does not sell as well. I was thinking about that with all the news about this shooter in Arizona, which I will be writing about in next week’s blog. We need to hear about good stories of recovery and not just on blogs, but the news.

What is Stigma?

Last week I wrote a little bit in the blog about stigma. I will try and define stigma in this blog. Stigma is when someone has a preconceived notion about a person or condition. The Mayo Clinic defines stigma as it is “based on stereotypes, stigma is a negative judgment based on a personal trait – in this case having a mental health condition.” I believe judgment starts when you are young and do not understand or heard from someone about mental illness. We grow up to be adults and watch movies, and read newspapers or people who have a mental illness, and they kill or hurt someone. This reinforces what we already believe. We are portrayed as dangerous and not understanding what we are doing. We are not seen as human beings. In another article about stigma it says, “For many Americans suffering with a mental illness, a fear of stigma often keeps them from seeking medical help they need….the sufferer can experience discrimination in employment, housing, medical care and social relationships, and this negatively affects the quality of life for these individuals and loved ones.” It is true; I have experienced it as I said in last week’s blog. Where I told someone I had a mental illness and they stopped talking to me. You learn to keep your mouth shut and never get to start new relationships with people outside of the mental health field or family. The other time I told that had a mental illness was in a classroom, and they already knew me for a half of semester before I told them. I believe the fact they had seen how I acted in class and they were young and open minded classmates helped a lot. I did make a couple of good friends in that class. They saw me for me. Although I never felt that I could repeat that in any other class. I believe for a person not to make a preconceived notion about a person with a mental illness, they would have to see that you are an ordinary person with dreams, and life problems like anyone else. It does not help how we are portrayed in the movies. I believe there are a lot of recovered people with a mental illness that are successful, although they never mention they have a mental illness. How has stigma affected you?

Stigma

I’ve been reading a lot about stigma on recovery websites. I know stigma is still very much alive, and very hard to change. I can remember back in 1994, when I was first looking to rent an apartment for the first time since my mental distress. I was with my sister looking at a nice apartment when I mentioned to the manager showing the apartment that I had a mental illness. She immediately stopped talking to me and started talking to my sister. I knew I would not get that apartment. Although because of disabilities Act, she had to make up another excuse why she could not rent to me. I know a lot of people with mental distress feel a lot like me. If you mention that you have mental distress, people suddenly change on you. I know that there are a lot more recovered people out there, besides the ones we read on the blogs and websites. They hold good jobs and have families, but know if they tell they have mental distress their whole world will change and not for the better. Besides this blog and friends that have known me for a while I do not announce I have a mental illness. A lot of the time they do not look at what a person has accomplished, once you say mental illness the way they look at you has changed. I know it is because of the misinformation in the news, and in the movies about mental distress. People will always have something they will be afraid or hate something. Maybe years from now and slowly things will change.

What is Stigma: Fact or Fiction?

A stigma is in one sense a sign of disgrace. It is the disapproval of personal characteristics or traits or beliefs that are viewed by others of society of those who may be against cultural norms.
History shows us, even today that social stigma includes mental illness, physical disabilities, many diseases, illegitimacy, the color of a persons’ skin, what social group you may belong to, religion, nationality, and ethnicity, even your political beliefs may be associated with stigma.

In our society criminality carries a strong stigma for it is associated with many other existing negative genres or categories associated with crime, even war. Stigma is founded upon stereotypes and misinformation. There are three kinds of stigma, deformity, poor personal traits (mental abilities, looks, dress) etc. and tribal status, these which are founded in all cultures and time frames. “Social influences” have been found to be more of a cause of mental disorder, yet the same holds true to the negative or stressful experiences people have suffered to as well. Misinterpretation can influence stigma as well as morality.

In the early civilizations some people were treated for mental disorders, whether they were of wealth or poor who is to know, yet the ideas of psychiatric theories developed in Persia, the Arabic and Muslim Empire and also in the Islamic world, this has been since before the eighth century AD. You might sense the idea of how long stigma has been associated with those who are downtrodden and the mentally ill. Besides the many hospitals which exist in the 21st century, there are now consumer/survivor movements’ organizations that are of clients/consumers of mental health services who consider themselves as survivors, to mention not only of their mental disabilities, yet also of stigma.

Social stigma is a problem. Many people believe those with a serious mental illness cannot recover, and are a nuisance to society hence the degradation suffered by those who are slow to grow physically, who suffer from mental retardation or cannot attain acceptance within the norm. MHCD and Outcomes believes otherwise, that people can become a part of society again and function with the norm without disgrace and with self reliance and self esteem.
To note, Employment discrimination and unemployment play a great part in the diagnosis of mental illness. Today there are efforts being taken to eliminate the stigma of mental illness, through the media, though at time this causes serious corruption through portrayals’ which usurp the idea of recovery through stigma.

The general public holds an idea of stereotypical images of those associated with mental illness and associates other ideas which are not of the societal norm a part of those images through stigma—
Will we ever find our peace over the rainbow—to change our experiences?
By Donald Sammons