Patients and victims of mental illness should not be subject to stigma or isolation
Purniya Awan
Contributor
Every day, when we look around, we see hundreds of people walking by us. With their books in one hand and bags in the other, they slowly weave their way through our lives. But what many people don’t know is that 20 per cent of the people we see every day are diagnosed with a mental illness and about 300,000 Canadians have a serious and persistent mental illness at any given time.
However, many people who suffer from some sort of mental illness are stigmatized and looked down on by other members of the society, sometimes even by their own family members.
Discrimination is a huge reason many Canadians do not seek help, or put off getting help until their situation worsens.
Several religions and societies around the world believe that family members who have any mental illness negatively affect their reputation, especially when those same people try to commit suicide.
Ian Fisher’s family is one example of many who are culturally bound to hide from the stigma that comes with suicide due to mental illness. In a sad tale told to CBC News, Fisher admitted that his brother committed suicide 35 years ago, and his family tried to cover it up by saying that he died in a hunting accident. He lived his whole life trying to ignore the truth of what had happened to his brother, and when his own son Sam was diagnosed with depression, he had to come to terms with it as a father. People are often reluctant to confess that a family member either has any kind of mental illness or that someone in the family has committed suicide because of societal pressure.
The misrepresentation of mental illnesses is also something to take note of. In media, mental illness is presented negatively through depictions and rude remarks when addressing characters with some mental illness.
Recent well-known movies such as The Roommate, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween are just some examples in which issues regarding mental illness are distorted and misrepresented. A common theme within these movies is that if you’re mentally ill, you’re violent. These kinds of images work—27 per cent of
Canadians are fearful of being around people who suffer from a mental illness according to Workplace Mental Health Promotion.
It is unfair that people with mental illness have to go through a dark period of time on their own. Mental illness should not be associated with stigma nor should patients be discriminated against. Considering that only one third of those who need mental health services in Canada actually receive them, should say something about how deep this problem goes. It will be difficult to fully change everyone’s perception of the matter, but it can be done.
