Being Bipolar Part Four – Stigma

What is stigma? It is a subject with many aspects. Let me start off with a description from the UK mental health charity, Rethink.

“Stigma is something judged by others as a sign of disgrace and something that sets a person apart from others.
When something like mental illness, disability or addiction, is stigmatised, the issue will often be avoided due to making people feel uncomfortable. People may even mock these things to make them less threatening.

For those living with mental illness, the stigma imposed upon them in society can lead to a lack of funding for services and public education, difficulty in finding employment, or in getting a mortgage, or even holiday insurance.

Ultimately, the silence and lack of understanding about mental illness encourages feelings of shame, and discourages people to seek treatment or even to admit that symptoms they may be experiencing may be related to a mental illness.”

I guess my delay in blogging about stigma means that I don't have much to add on the subject. I do care about stigma and I try to combat it.

There is plenty of work going on to combat stigma. As a rule, more exposure in the media can help. That is as long as it is informed. Unfortunately, every negative story about mental health tends to increase stigma. It must be good if the general population are better informed about what mental illness is and about how common it is.

I think that mental health sufferers can get very isolated by their illness and this contributes to a different kind of stigma. They set themselves apart and are vulnerable to stereotyping.

Please feel free to add comments and describe your views of stigma.

Thanks,
Clive

I Can't Save the World - Alone

I try to help everyone. Maybe I try to save everyone. I have always tried to do this and I used to absorb everyone's pain. This made me ill. I manage to avoid getting so involved now. I find it hard not to try to help someone if they trust me with their problems. I always tried to analyze their problems because I have an anlytical mind. I have helped people over the years and I am proud of that. I did it at the expense of my own well being. It is not healthy to absorb so much negativity. It did not affect me in a conscious way but all that stuff had to go some where. I did this while suffering from bipolar disorder and it amazes me that I wasn't pushed over the edge on occasions.

I still like to help people when they confide in me. I am flattered that people find me trustworthy and I can't turn people away. I no longer put my well being on the line. I have to stay well.

I want to cooperate more with people. I have started a project to produce a compilation of stories/poems about mental health. I hope to work with others as contributors or as helpers in the process. I did everything for my book and the publisher just put out what I sent to them. I hope to find people with experience of cheaper self publishing. I visualise a team of people working towards a goal. I have talked to many people who are writing or who want to write. Writing can be therapeutic and I want to encourage people to contribute to this project. It can be anonymous if they like. I just want the people who think they are not heard to have a voice.

I will always want to save people. I accept now that I haven't got the experience to help everyone. We all have certain skills and I hope we can help each other. Anyone is welcome. You can contribute or you may have skills we can use.

I encourage anyone who reads this to get involved. You don't have to be a sufferer. You don't even have to know someone who suffers. You just need to care. I see this is a big way to combat the stigma of mental health. Stories or poems can be about any aspect of mental health, how it affects you, how it affects your friend or family member or how you feel as an outsider. Sufferers are not often seen as people who can achieve. I want to redress the balance.

Email me at clivee777@hotmail.com if you think you can help. If you send me an email address , i will invite you to join the google group BipolarStories. Here we can exchange ideas and post files. I will edit the book with help of anyone who has the right skills. Please volunteer if you have experience of an inexpensive publishing process.

Regards, Clive