Commentary: It’s time to treat the stigma of mental illness

World Mental Health Day was Oct. 10, and instead of celebrating how far we have come in the mental-health field, I’ve been dwelling on the stigma that is still heavily associated with it.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 450 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with a mental illness. This means that 450 million people — and their families — have to deal with the shame and discrimination associated with mental illness.

Does society not realize how counterintuitive this is? How are we supposed to address mental-health issues, aiming to reduce and hopefully one day eliminate them, if we are consistently increasing these patients’ anxieties and adding more determinants to their depression?

According to Time to Change, a new campaign attempting to address mental-health discrimination, nine in 10 mental-health patients felt that the stigma associated with the illness was more difficult to deal with than their actual conditions. By associating negative connotations with mental health, we are destroying the emotional well-being of those around us.

Some people claim that the world is simply too sensitive, that we should not need to tiptoe around every issue. I agree wholeheartedly. The world is too sensitive to change, especially in what we don’t understand. The revolution of psychiatric medications began only 64 years ago, and medical research is still unlocking more and more secrets about the brain every day.

We are afraid of what we cannot comprehend. Because of this, we fail to realize that our everyday doctor visits, designed to assess and repair chemical imbalances in our bodies, are not that different from mental-health visits, designed to assess and repair chemical imbalances in our brains.

Going to a psychiatrist to treat mental illness should hold the same merit as taking the responsibility to treat any other ailment. We should, in no way, condemn people for tending to their healthcare needs.

Unfortunately, bringing awareness cannot be the sole solution to getting rid of the stigma. After working in a healthcare setting for three years, I have come to the realization that ignorance does not discriminate among educational backgrounds.

Some physicians unfairly assume their mental-health patients are less trustworthy than their standard patients. Some pharmacists identify psychiatric medications as “crazy pills” and provide a lesser service to psychiatric patients, claiming that they won’t understand an extensive drug consult.

The lingering presence of a mental-health stigma within the hospital environment itself is so strong that some patients associate their illnesses with their identities.

Do our own providers and pharmacists, who have taken mandatory mental-health sensitivity training courses, not realize that their so-called light-hearted remarks are the very reason for the persistent stigma in our communities? Society will only come to see past the negative stereotypes if those in the healthcare field treat the topic of mental health with a sense of normality.

In order to remove the stigma surrounding the mental-health field, we need to be able to openly talk about mental illnesses with the appropriate level of seriousness. This approach will aid to break down the misconceptions formed about people with mental health issues as it improves awareness and communication.

In order to do this, Time to Change says, we need to improve intergroup contact between mental-health patients and their providers. If we are able to eliminate the negative stereotypes in hospital settings and replace them with positive energy, we may finally be ready to battle the stigma in our societies that is silently isolating people with mental health problems from the rest of the public.

By destroying the stigma, we will be one step closer to diminishing the number of people with mental health issues.

ZAINA BASHQOY is studying public health policy at UC Irvine.