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In my experience, there is so much ignorance to mental illness.

BambiFawnSenior Contributor18 Sept 2017, 7:30 am AEST

In my experience, there is so much ignorance to mental illness.

There is so much ignorance to mental illness. Promoting stigma against mental illness is wrong. Some of the media is guilty of purporting false claims about people with mental health issues. It is ' fake news'. There is much ignorance towards mental illness. Nonetheless, there are good people in the community that espouse healthy and acceptable views of love and compassion and that are not prejudiced or judgemental. It is necessary to debunk and dispel the myths surrounding mental illness. There are good people that have suffered from a mental illness. Sadly the good folk are tarred with the same brush as a few bad cases are the only ones reported in the newspapers.
It's shocking that some of the crime, detective and police shows depict and portray a schizophrenic as a psychotic killer, when my father tells me that only 2% of schizophrenics commit murder. My dear friend with chronic schizophrenia is a good living Christian.
The mentally ill can make worthwhile contributions.

Bambi Fawn

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In response to: In my experience, there is so much ignorance to mental illness.

MaryMahemSenior Contributor18 Sept 2017, 3:36 pm AEST

Re: In my experience, there is so much ignorance to mental illness.

While I don't subscribe to God or religion I do agree with everything else you have said in this post. People get shocked when celebrities "come out" or commit suicide, like being famous inoculates you from a chemical imbalance or a reaction to trauma. This means that they do not understand the fundamentals of MI, let alone specifics for each condition.

I am sure a lot of us had the same misunderstanding before we recognised our own or loved ones' illnesses. I am not yet brave or strong enough to be open with any but my 2 closet family members, and I know they are trying to understand but I am still hiding much from them for their protection and my ego. I don't want 3 mental illnesses. I am certainly not telling others yet. Its only been going on for 37 years - maybe one day I will be brave!

In response to: Re: In my experience, there is so much ignorance to mental illness.

Unknown userMember22 Sept 2017, 3:28 pm AEST

Re: In my experience, there is so much ignorance to mental illness.

So true @BambiFawn. There is a lot of work being done to try and combat stigma, but sadly we still have a long way to go. Have you seen this thread on Stigma? Stigma

In response to: Re: In my experience, there is so much ignorance to mental illness.

BambiFawnSenior Contributor22 Sept 2017, 5:37 pm AEST

Re: In my experience, there is so much ignorance to mental illness.

Thanks a bunch of roses dear lovely @Former-Member for the link to the thread stigma.

In response to: Re: In my experience, there is so much ignorance to mental illness.

Unknown userMember06 Nov 2017, 4:53 pm AEDT

Re: In my experience, there is so much ignorance to mental illness.

Hey @BambiFawn,

Just checking-in. Have you found the stigma thread helpful? You started such a great discussion around stigma on this thread - you really captured how harmful and hurtful it can be. As @Former-Member said, we still have a long way to go to combat stigma. For this reason, it is so important to start discussions like you have here, to openly talk about these issues and the impact they have on people who struggle with mental illness.

Kindest,

Amour_Et_Psyché

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