Why is there a social stigma against mental illness like Anxiety, Depression, Autism, Bipolar ect.?
Have you ever been treated differently because of a disorder you have?
How have you dealt with it?
>>17116024
Stigma is there because people fear what they do not understand. They think that you are lying or trying to get attention when sometimes your body chemistry is physically making you feel/act a way that promotes actions that they think you can control.
I don't have a mental illness, but I have loved ones that do. The funny thing is that my relative who has Asperger's doesn't care that other people treat him differently. It's a blessing of the disease. I'VE been the one who went to counseling because I get so enraged when people make fun of him.
The people who don't understand how mental illness works are the same people who will abandon their moms/dads when they get dementia or Alzheimer's and become completely different people because of the disease.
>>17116024
They act differently from neurotypical people. The anxiety and depression isn't too ostracizing unless it's perpetual but the ASD isn't exactly something that comes and goes, and the lack of social awareness makes others uncomfortable. It's always easier to avoid that in which you don't understand than to try and accept it.
>Have you ever been treated differently because of a disorder you have?
Other than getting barred from the military for life, it hasn't really hurt me directly.
>How have you dealt with it?
I'm mild enough I don't have to do that much. I do go to therapy and group though.
>>17116024
>Why is there a social stigma
because people with these issues are often destructive and harmful to others
>>17116024
Anxiety and depression are not mental illnessess, they are states of mind. Anyone chronicly suffering from either has been unable to find out their causes.
footnote: There can be rare cases of a disorder causing undue anxiety and depression but it's the exception not the rule.
>>17116024
I try not to think about what other people think of me. It feels kinda bad though when you don't know if people act in a certain way towards you because they feel bad for you or if they're scared of you. I just try not to tell people about my anxiety because the moment they find out they treat me like a complete different person and I feel even more anxious.
>>17116024
There is social stigma because we act in ways that are unplesant to others and don't change these behaviors when asked to do so. I'm schizotypal, I hear and see things that aren't there, when I react to them it unnerves people, I understand that. The stigma exists because if you don't have a handle on your disorder your behavior is not socially acceptable, if you do have a handle on things by DSM definition you don't have the disorder.
People with mental issues are considered unpredictable and it scares people when someone doesn't act the same way everyone else does.
Why would there not be a stigma? It's called mental ILLNESS for a reason.
Why is there social stigma against physical illness?
