Stop the Stigma

From the beginning of my OCD experience, there was always one constant - the stigma of mental illness. The stigma of mental illness is one of the last discriminations that our society sadly still tolerates. Anyone who has experienced it firsthand knows that the shame and humiliation suffered as a result of this degradation can be just as painful as the illness itself.

Before my full blown OCD, I had a wonderful life and was treated with respect and dignity by friends, relatives, and colleagues. But after my fall from grace, I witnessed just the opposite. I was treated as a virtual leper by many of these same people as well as many of the helping professionals who were supposed to make people feel better.

Throughout my illness I was subjected to: verbal abuse, taunting, hate mail, my house was pelted with eggs, my workplace was covered with dirt, I was publicly ridiculed, made fun of, criticized, talked down to, harassed, infantilized, demeaned, and in the best of circumstances, simply treated as a non-entity.

"When I grow up, I want to be mentally ill." I think it's a pretty safe bet that since the beginning of time, no one has ever expressed this sentiment to be their career path in life. But just as wishing for something won't make it happen, so too not wishing for it, won't stop it from happening. And for 57 million people in the US today, the reality of mental illness, and the stigma attached to it, has become just that - their life's "occupation."

Mental illness is non-discriminating, it can happen to anyone. Everyone in life gets a card to play. As the saying goes, "In life, it's not the card you get, but how well you play the hand you're dealt that counts." Those who get the mental illness card, however, also face the equally challenging stigma card that is always dealt along with it.

As the video indicated, there are some factors that we as a society can do to stop the stigma of mental illness. We can stop labeling and blaming the individual, but rather have acceptance of the illness and start talking about it. When only 25% of the mentally ill population is seeking treatment, there is something seriously wrong with society's emotional IQ for permitting this situation to continue to exist. The bottom line is to get educated and educate others. This knowledge will begin to turn the key that have kept so many in a dark closet for so long - and this will in turn begin to STOP THE STIGMA!