Is there a stigma attached to mental health?

[bodie]

Listening to Stephen Fry the other day talking about his suicidal feelings and his depression.

There was so many people saying things like  "huh what has he got to be depressed about?"

Are we in the medieval ages, still?  Should we get the leeches out.

It is a fucking illness.  You wouldn't say to a diabetic  "what have you got to be diabetic about?"  would you?

Rant over.  I do like Stephen Fry. 

["couldbecousin"]

  A few years ago I had to explain depression to someone who didn't understand why an elderly friend
  was depressed.  She said the same thing --- what has he got to be depressed about?  I told her
  sometimes it just happens, it is something going wrong in the brain. 
  She really doesn't understand mental-health stuff in general. 

[TheoK]

Never mind the NT majority. They are the real idiots. It just happens to be so that they are the majority.

["couldbecousin"]

Never mind the NT majority. They are the real idiots. It just happens to be so that they are the majority.

  I happen to think that idiocy knows no neurotype.  My own life is filled with prime examples. 

[RageBeoulve]

Listening to Stephen Fry the other day talking about his suicidal feelings and his depression.

There was so many people saying things like  "huh what has he got to be depressed about?"

Are we in the medieval ages, still?  Should we get the leeches out.

It is a fucking illness.  You wouldn't say to a diabetic  "what have you got to be diabetic about?"  would you?

Rant over.  I do like Stephen Fry. 

 

I don't like whining. In fact I think there is a problem with misunderstanding mental health. A big one. Again, you'd have to come visit and let me show you what i'm talking about by taking you among my people to show you they are a distracted and whiny bunch of faggots.

There are trillions of worse things to be depressed about than a family member dying of natural causes. For real.

['andersom']

Listening to Stephen Fry the other day talking about his suicidal feelings and his depression.

There was so many people saying things like  "huh what has he got to be depressed about?"

Are we in the medieval ages, still?  Should we get the leeches out.

It is a fucking illness.  You wouldn't say to a diabetic  "what have you got to be diabetic about?"  would you?

Rant over.  I do like Stephen Fry. 

Oh, the  "what have you got to be diabetic about" is just around the corner. So easy to tell people that their illness is their fault. Makes it more "doable" and "justifiable" to economise on healthcare too.

Morose, maybe.

But here, in the Netherlands, the government in her ultimate wisdom came with the idea that mental health-care for children is not part of healthcare. It should belong to well-fare and benefits, from January 2015 on. Stigmatising happens with a reason.

['andersom']

Never mind the NT majority. They are the real idiots. It just happens to be so that they are the majority.

  I happen to think that idiocy knows no neurotype.  My own life is filled with prime examples. 

[conlang returns]

I definitely attach a stigma to mental health.  If someone isn't at least slightly peculiar, I trust them a whole lot less. 

[TheoK]

I definitely attach a stigma to mental health.  If someone isn't at least slightly peculiar, I trust them a whole lot less.

 

[bodie]

I am going back 20+ years now,  when I was at school we had an American exchange student.  She was talking on the bus about her family and she mentioned at least two people in her family who had been to see a psychiatrist.   She spoke about it in a very positive way, like it was a normal thing to do. A good thing.  She couldn't understand why there were sniggers.

I got the impression from that, and subsequent material on the TV that America has a much more positive view of mental health.

['andersom']

I am going back 20+ years now,  when I was at school we had an American exchange student.  She was talking on the bus about her family and she mentioned at least two people in her family who had been to see a psychiatrist.   She spoke about it in a very positive way, like it was a normal thing to do. A good thing.  She couldn't understand why there were sniggers.

I got the impression from that, and subsequent material on the TV that America has a much more positive view of mental health.

There are differences between countries indeed. Saw a documentary about depression and tabu in Belgium, a while ago. The percentage of suicides is a lot higher there, because depression is something not talked about. Stigmatisation and making things tabu can be lethal.

[RageBeoulve]

I am going back 20+ years now,  when I was at school we had an American exchange student.  She was talking on the bus about her family and she mentioned at least two people in her family who had been to see a psychiatrist.   She spoke about it in a very positive way, like it was a normal thing to do. A good thing.  She couldn't understand why there were sniggers.

I got the impression from that, and subsequent material on the TV that America has a much more positive view of mental health.

I have nothing at all against mental health. I just don't like people making mountains out of molehills.

[Semicolon]

I can't speak for all of America, but Bodie's observation is mostly correct in my little corner. Among the young and socially liberal, mental health has as much "stigma" as a Catholic marrying a Protestant. It's not given a second thought. One thing that it can lead to is discomfort and oversensitivity if a normal person finds out about it. That's true with physical illnesses, too.

There are still some Archie Bunkers, though. Some Americans frown on mental health, just as some frown on interracial marriage or religious conversion.

As long as the mentally ill like guns.

[conlang returns]

In all seriousness, the stigma depends on the diagnosis.  You will get a different reaction if you say you have depression or ADHD from what you'll get if you say you have schizophrenia or autism. 

[RageBeoulve]

In all seriousness, the stigma depends on the diagnosis.  You will get a different reaction if you say you have depression or ADHD from what you'll get if you say you have schizophrenia or autism.

Exactly. Theres a difference between someone who thinks they're a glass of orange juice and if they tip over they'll die, and someone with ADD who gets a little distracted from time to time. Cold hard reality of it, one of those people needs more help, and when the other makes their DEBILITATING illness into a huge fucking deal and tries to socially engineer disproportionate sympathy for themselves, its a fucking problem man.