Combating Mental Health Stigma

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), stigma happens when people are negatively viewed for having a specific characteristic, whether mental, physical or other. Mental health is often stigmatized because of a lack of understanding about mental health conditions are and people’s experiences living with a mental health condition. Stigma can arise from personal thoughts or religious beliefs about people who have mental health conditions.

Over the past few decades, the US has come a long way in how we view and discuss mental health matters. Conversations around mental health are becoming more normalized, and should continue to do so, due to 1 in 5 adults in the United States live with a mental health condition. Many people are developing increased comfortability sharing their personal experiences and supporting others along their mental health and healing journeys.

What can we do to combat stigma?

Talk openly about mental health

Communicatee about your thoughts and feelings regarding mental health stigma. Participate in events in efforts to stand up to stigma. Chat online or speak out in your professional network about social media mental health articles. Speak about mental health in ways that are supportive and combative of mental health stigma. Try to avoid using pathologizing language, talking about mental health difficulties in truthful and evidenced based ways.

Educate yourself and others

Knowledge is power when you combat stigma. It may seem like information is difficult to find, yet in order to prove myths incorrect, seeking knowledge is the way to find the truth. Learn more about mental health recovery, specific symptomology and characteristics of diagnostic codes, attend a suicide prevention training, learn a new coping skill, and visit trusted resources for more information.

Be conscious of language

Language matters. They ways in which we speak about mental health and mentall health stigma has the ability to perpetuate or seize stigma all together. Try to refrain from using pathologizing language such as “insane”, “crazy”, or “psycho”. Use person first language, honoring the person and their experience without defining the person by their experience, such as “person with mental challenge” instead of “mentally challenged person”.

Combating stigma is not a one-time mastery. Achieving any one of the steps above is progress in the right direction, yet consistency is key to change. Repeating these steps regularly and making a conscious effort to move forward in destigmatizing mental health is important on micro and macro levels. These action steps may not destigmatize mental health completely, but it will take away some of its power by modeling appropriate ways of speaking about mental health. Tread lightly during this process in attempts to avoid burnout. When we stand up to stigma and advocate for mental health care, we are not only advocating for the cause and communities around us, but we are advocating for ourselves.