Story featured below: I was asked to report on the stigma of mental health by a fellow colleague Natasa Korfiotou on a show that she was producing for her master’s major project.
Nowadays, there is a stigma that is attached to mental health.
According to the Mayo clinic, “stigma is when someone views a person in a negative way, because they have a distinguishing characteristic or personal trait that’s thought to be, or actually is – a negative stereotype.”
Therefore, with this stigma that is attached to mental health, it becomes problematic for a person suffering from a mental illness to want to seek help, because they are afraid of what people will think of them.
According to the Mental Health Foundation:
- One in four people will experience a mental health problem at some point in their lives.
- Around one in ten children experience mental health problems.
- Depression affects around one in 12 of the whole population.
- Rates of self-harm in the UK are the highest in Europe at 400 per 100,000.
- 450 million people world-wide have a mental health problem.
By attaching a stigma to mental health it can lead to discrimination, which may be obvious and direct, such as someone making a negative remark about your mental illness or treatment. Or it may be unintentional or subtle, for example someone who avoids you because the person assumes you could be unstable, violent, or dangerous due to your mental illness.
Specialist say it is extremely crucial to get help and seek treatment if you are experiencing any kind of mental health problem.
Video featured below: I, Jessica Quinlan the reporter, provide more insight on the topic of mental health and the stigma that is attached to it. I provided many statistics that are involved with the population that deals with mental health and the major ongoing problems around it.
I was also asked by one of the host about my own mental health condition that I deal with on a daily basis and how it can impact a person, such as myself, and the problems that I have had to deal with; for example, people treating me differently because of my PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder).
