Break the stigma
- Grace Conlin
- Mar 20
- 4 min read
Have you ever heard someone explain their problems and caught yourself thinking “this person would really benefit from therapy”.
Maybe in this situation you proceed to ask them,
🗣️“do you see a therapist?”
To which they then reply uncomfortably,
🗣️“No—what? There’s nothing wrong with me, why would I go to therapy?”
There is definitely a large chance that you’ve had this exact conversation as have many people in America. According to Mental Health America “More than half of adults with a mental illness receive no treatment”. This is a shocking statistic and is due to a variety of reasons induced by society. This has a large impact on not only the individual struggling, but the people surrounding them.
The stigma
Mental healthcare gets such a bad reputation, people think going to therapy means you aren’t well, they think that because you’re medicated there’s “something wrong with you”. In reality mental health care is healthcare. Everyone who seeks help is affected by this stigma created by society. If there’s all this stigma surrounding an issue that 23.1% of (diagnosed) Americans struggle with, nobody will seek help, leading to a strain on the healthcare system along with many more individuals struggling.
According to a research study conducted by the National Library of Medicine labeled “Understanding and Addressing Mental Health Stigma Across Cultures for Improving Psychiatric Care: A Narrative Review”, they found that “Delays in seeking care can exacerbate mental health conditions leading to worse outcomes and reduced quality of life”. This shows that this stigma doesn’t just affect people mentally, but can literally “reduce their quality of life” (National Library of Medicine). It’s quite ridiculous that something like reaching out for help about something you’re going through is so frowned upon by our society that individuals are literally being harmed by it. You would think if people were struggling with this so much it would become a resource that is even more available, instead of making fun or judging people who do reach out and receive mental health treatment.
The science behind mental health
People may think “anxiety is just produced from your mind” or “depression is just being sad”, when in reality these “illnesses”, or so says society, are caused by chemical imbalances in your brain. Depression is caused by a deficiency in serotonin along with dopamine and norepinephrine. Does any of that sound like the words “sad” or “anxious” or “unstable”? These words have been used to describe people with mental illness, instead of the scientific definition. If we as a society said to people “your depression is caused by a depletion of certain chemicals in your brain and you can get medicated” instead of “why are you sad all the time you’re no fun”, we would one hundred percent have less individuals struggling in America.
Like depression, as depicted here, it doesn’t mean that you are less than anyone else, it quite literally means that your brain is chemically imbalanced. As you can see, the depressed brain has less reactions, it seems more dull than the brain without depression where the individual is feeling more. This is where the feeling of numbness or disinterest in individuals with depression comes from, it’s literally an imbalance in your brian.
This feeds into the stigma, people think that being on medications like antidepressants, which “eleven percent of Americans aged over 12 years and over take”. This number seems like it should be higher based on the amount of people who struggle with depression, but people don’t want to be medicated because then “they have a problem”. In reality, acknowledging this type of problem which isn’t their fault would make someone’s life a whole lot easier. This issue produces more mentally unstable people who may have behavioral problems, not only harming themselves, but others along with them.
Masculinity and mental health
This ever so present issue is harming so many different people. Everyone can struggle with mental health, it doesn’t have a gender assigned to it. Whatever gender you identify, or if you identify with none, you can struggle with mental health. Although, in this climate it’s a lot of men that are affected by the whole stigma surrounding mental health and seeking help. In another study done by The National Library of Medicine, they found that “masculinities are interwoven with mental illness stigma, and stigmatization in turn has detrimental consequences for men including, limiting their disclosure, reducing opportunities for social support, hindering help-seeking and interfering with treatment adherence.” This study exemplifies the various ways in which men themselves are sabotaging their own health because of the social view of seeking help.
First and foremost, mental health and illnesses harm the individual themselves, they become afraid of opening up to others. Men with the issues stated in the study might push their feelings deeper and deeper, until they spiral. This then leads to strains on things like relationships, men are afraid of seeking help because they fear it will make their masculinity become fragile, when in reality, the strongest thing you can do is be aware of your own feelings.
Breaking the stigma
Everyday, you can do something to stop this issue. Encouraging therapy, talking to your friends about your problems, seeing a doctor yourself if you’re struggling, are all ways to ultimately break this stigma.
This is something everyone should read! I love how you rephrased the average societal definition of depression. You're right, if we said someone has a chemical imbalance and depletion of certain chemicals, everyone would be taking it seriously. The idea you brought up that mental health isn't just healthcare is really damaging to people. I think we could avoid of lot of suffering if everyone understood that mental health is so much more than just being a little nervous or sad.
I think that this is a very important topic to talk about. There are still a lot of people who think depression means a person is unstable, and that is simply not true. And it only causes more harm to think that way. If people still hold this belief, it will discourage others to ask for help out of fear of being alienated from society. So I appreciate you highlighting these issues.
-Jackson Gould
Definitely relatable, the need to conform to the majority group has made the idea of going to therapy for people very difficult. People who need therapy often deflect the idea. People want to be in line with their peers, and branching out from the line is hard due to that stigma of “therapy is inherently bad” I’ve been in the same boat, I initially thought of therapy as a last resort, but was blinded by the fact that therapy can be a good way to just let it all out and relax.
I really liked your use of emojis and images in this post, as well as your spacing between them—it made things easier and more interesting to follow! I completely agree about the negative stigma surrounding discussions of mental health. It is frustrating that a few nuanced perspectives can make people turn away from such beneficial services as medication or therapy, all because of things they have heard. This is a very important subject to cover and should be highlighted more often.
I really enjoyed your blog post, and I think the information benefited from the visual of the brain. I think there definitely is a stigma for men's mental health that is very important to talk about. I think early education on mental health and therapy, maybe starting in grade school, could help break the stigma.