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Does Mental Health Stigma Stop People Seeking Help?
Does Mental Health Stigma Stop People Seeking Help?
A little while back marked the annual ‘Time To Talk Day’ which is part of the ‘Time To Change’ campaign to end mental health discrimination. The campaign encourages people to talk about mental health as a way of breaking down the barriers and stigma around the subject.
And, of course, showing support to others and creating a space where you can talk about and express feelings is a good thing. In my experience, many people still do not understand things like anxiety and depression unless or until they experience it for themselves. Being open, supportive and showing others that they matter is always important. If someone close to you wants to talk then be there for them; if someone close to you doesn’t want to talk then be there for them.
There’s little doubt that there is still much room for improvement in improving education, support and help for people struggling with mental health problems. Talking about mental health is good yet much more needs to be done for people to understand and feel able to actively seek the help they need (which is perhaps where many well-meaning ‘just talking about it’ groups come unstuck).
We could probably also have a long conversation about whether talking about ‘stigma’ inadvertently supports its existence. Some might argue that talking about it and highlighting it just re-enforces it because it keeps it in existence (if you follow me…if you keep telling people there is stigma and re-enforcing the idea in people’s minds then it will always exist won’t it?). Far better, in my opinion, to talk about what we do want – good mental health and appropriate support and recognition – and be the change we want to see.
Anyway, I could digress but here today I’m more interested in looking at whether mental health related stigma does in fact deter or stop people from seeking help.