End Stigma Campaigns for Mental Illness Day #2

Apparently some of you are die hard anti-stigma toters. I get it. This concept has been around for a while, not to mention serious govt. funding incentives to fight stigma (whatever that means) attached.
Get it. So get it.

Let’s revisit the definition of stigma: “mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.” When we fight stigma, what are we supposed to do? Is the burden to change on me? Or the person afflicted with a serious mental illness? And how does this help the person afflicted if he lacks insight and cannot advocate for his or herself?

I spend a good many days advocating and meeting with people in leadership who can effect change. It’s rare when I venture into our Capitol city that I do not encounter a homeless mentally ill person. On a recent occasion I actually saw two such people before I entered a high security building and hit the elevator for a meeting. I brushed passed a man passed out under a heap of dirty blankets, I pretended not to see a Schizophrenic man dancing in the crosswalk, only to be stopped later as I tried to leave the parking garage by a mentally ill man walking in front of my truck screaming to himself wearing filthy clothes.
And guess what we discussed in that fancy meeting I just mentioned? How to end the stigma of mental illness! I felt as if I were in some bizarre and twisted plot, that a joke was being played on me and I couldn’t express why it wasn’t funny.

More questions: is the burden to end the mark of disgrace (stigma)on me? The person who is walking by the homeless mentally ill people? And how do I end this stigma? Ignore them? Don’t pass judgment? By muttering something to the effect…there but for the grace of God go I… now where can I meet my girlfriends for lunch…? I am stigma-free! Pat my self on the back and lemme have an iced venti chai-latte, thank you?

There is so much more to unpack here, this will take a few days…
#mentalhealthawareness #mentalillness#seriousmentalillness #stigma#schizophrenia #schizoaffective #bipolar#depression