The Stigmatization Mitigation
In numerous countries all over the world and upon various platforms, people have finally started acknowledging mental health as a serious point of concern. On social media, we see various artists, celebrities, notable personalities and platforms acting as advocates in favor of promoting mental health awareness. Yet still, the degree of success as a result of such positive messages seems much too insignificant. With all the convenience in the modern day life, one would think that such problems wouldn’t exist. Than how come, instead of things being better, the number of people suffering from mental illnesses is at an all-time high? The answer is just composed of one word, and that is ‘stigmatization.’
Mental Health Stigma is a problem that is pertinent all across the globe and prevents people from opening up about their issues in front of the world. For a common man’s understanding Stigmatization in context of mental health can be classified into two categories; Public-stigma and self-stigma. Public-stigma takes place when a person with mental illness generates a reaction, usually negative, on the general public’s part. It is a highly prevalent and most commonly observed issue in our country when it comes to seeking mental health treatment. Although owing to our family values, we live in a society that is very closely knit together to make up a strong support system, yet still, in case problems such as mental illness, the whole society, although inadvertently, adds to the problem by labelling the victims with rather discouraging terms such as psycho, mad, abnormal etc. This leads the victims and their families to enter a state of denial and completely ignore the issue altogether in the interest of finding refuge from the harsh judgments of their peers. Unfortunately, in our country, this type of stigma is most commonly observed among everyone.
However, the problem doesn’t end there. The second, and a rather more challenging type, is self-stigma. Self-Stigmatization occurs when the mentally ill people form negative biases about themselves. To elaborate, the victims may even sometimes acknowledge the fact that they have been subjected to a certain mental disorder. However, when faced with the problem of self-stigmatization, not only do they draw themselves further away from getting the problem addressed, but also resort to unhealthy means of escape from the reality and develop self-harm and suicidal tendencies, which worsens the problem to a highly perilous degree.
Stigmatization is a problem owing to which, the number of people suffering from mental illness is rising at an alarming rate, which calls for urgent mitigation measures to be formulated to nullify the problem. Fortunately, a few individuals as well as organizations have started to take notice of the problem and are currently in pursuit of bring about a paradigm shift, especially among the younger generation, as they are more prone to falling prey to mental illness. However, there is a need for large scale information dissemination campaigns and sessions must be conducted to sensitize adults and youngsters, whereby they are educated regarding the ramifications of stigmatization and the importance of a strong support system. With that said, it is an obligation upon all responsible members of the society to endorse the movement taking place against metal health stigma in any corner around the globe, to uproot the problem once and for all.