I started my new master's program last month and as such, I haven't had much time to free write. However, this is a response to a discussion question from week one in my current course. I thought it was interesting (and written well enough) to show you all here. Enjoy, and I will hopefully catch up with a true rant soon!
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“Mental
health” as I would define it would be “contentment”. Of course that word
alone falls far short of a comprehensive definition. If I were to elaborate I
would state that “mental health” is the ability to have homeostatic functioning
of the mind particularly in the areas of cognition, and behavior defined by age
appropriate socioemotional maturity. This definition would also encompass
normative traits such as resilience, stress tolerance and typical response to
both positive and negative stimuli.
Certainly
there are stigmas within the field of mental health. To this day mental health
still exists as both terror-invoking and grossly misinterpreted by the public (Kinsella & Kinsella, 2015). Unfortunately, these stereotypical labels
fall on both patients and practitioners. For example, those who are in the
field who are all too often referred to by such colorful nicknames as “shrinks”
or “quacks”. Most people probably think a counselor who bills competitively for
their rate is “money hungry” or “playing the insurance company”.
Moreover,
there are also stigmas attached to those seeking
treatment. Such as anyone suffering from addiction issues being labeled a
“junkie”, “boozer” or “methhead”. Along with these names come the ideas that
addicts are inherently bad, criminalized and deemed by many to be destined to
fail. Many authors have pointed to this problem as being one that spans the
globe and causes real damage to those that have to cope with the negative
connotation their disease brings (Henderson & Gronholm, 2018) .
What
I have found personally interesting regarding the idea of stigmas, is that they
exist in varying dimensions amongst substance abusers as a sort of “pecking
order”. During my undergrad at a treatment facility I met many an alcoholic
that would shake their heads in disgust and say, “At least I’m not that guy, he’s got real problems, he’s a heroin addict.” Or the opiate user who lost
their job judging another that had their house foreclosed on as more severe,
and thus worthy of disdain.
In
reality, I believe we all carry around some measure of these disorders. There
might be a gentlemen who has to check to see if he shut his garage as he pulled
out of his driveway 3 times before actually leaving for work, and then there’s
the gentlemen who has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive personality
disorder. The only thing that’s
separates “us” from “them” is severity and impact on quality of life. The idea
of negatively rooted stigmas being associated with mental health is therefore cumbersome. After all, we are all walking around with the
same grey matter between our ears.
As
far as “why” these stigmas exist, it is simply due to misinformation and
ignorance. Often times people fear and thus misconstrue what they do not
understand. This of course leads to falsehoods being believed as fact. As
professionals in the field of mental health it is a small part of our job to
help dispel these myths as we encounter them.
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| Used from allinahealth.org |
References
Henderson,
C., & Gronholm, P. C. (2018). Mental Health Related Stigma as a ‘Wicked
Problem’: The Need to Address Stigma and Consider the Consequences.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health , 1158, https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsdoj&AN=edsdoj.b88ccbf97dcc476d81c0fff7efae42cf&site=eds-live&scope=site
Kinsella,
C., & Kinsella, C. (2015). Introducing Mental Health, Second Edition : A
Practical Guide. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
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