stigma

People with mental illness represent one of the most deeply stigmatized groups in our culture. Learn more about it here.

ADHD Demystified
Everyone seems to think they know all about ADHD and its symptoms. I'll be out somewhere and over hear people say things to their friends like, "I'm so ADD right now!", because they'll be on their phone while also working on their computer, and they cant decide which device to devote their attention to. I've also talked to many people who don't believe ADHD is a legitimate issue or that it was created by big pharma just to sell drugs. What's worse are the numerous stereotypes and stigmas that are associated with having ADHD. When people hear that I am ADHD, cue the eye rolls and endless suggestions of dietary changes, more exercise, less screen time, it's a conspiracy, or worse, "it's all in your head", comments.
By Wendy Sanders5 years ago in Psyche
Sleeping During the Day Doesn’t Make You a Failure
--- I'm waking up stumbling, my eyes half closed as I look at the time, 6pm. It's really 6pm for the second day in a row. I've been trying to wake up early enough to get time sensitive things done for days and I am feeling like I've failed…again.
By Kailey Drake5 years ago in Psyche
I’m Not a ‘Real Man’
Growing up, I was told a lot of things about being a man. Most commonly, I heard that men don’t cry, show weakness, or even get emotional.
By SWS5 years ago in Psyche
Stigmas of mental illness
Stigmas of Mental Illness As far as I can remember, I was always an eclectic individual. I wore colorful clothes as a child and teenager. I beat to my own drum and had my own quirks. When it came to school, I bonded with my teachers rather than the other students my own age. I had a very hard time communicating. I was always very anxious. Don’t get me wrong, I was in the top of my class academically and in 11 clubs and activities in my senior year but I still had internal issues.
By Sadie Colucci5 years ago in Psyche
WHEN DISEASES HAVE LOGOS
Don’t panic folks. This isn’t just another ill-informed, pub quiz diatribe on COVID19. More an exploratory rant about how, with the help of our relentless 24 hour news machines, we love to turn everything, including diseases, into a brand. Why we do it. And why we surrender so much power to these brands.
By Iain Cooper5 years ago in Psyche
Ableism in Reading Communities
I have experienced many things in the reading communities I am a part of and not all of them have been wholeheartedly positive. Reading communities, like every other community on the internet often have a certain amount of toxicity. As the reading community is made up of so many different kinds of people, there would definitely be amounts of various things that are problematic in internet communities including: racism, sexism, homophobia, misgendering and transphobia, insults and various other forms of discrimination. But I think one of the worst forms of discrimination I have seen in the reading community is ableism. Ableism is alive so much in the reading community and it comes in the form of 'listening to audiobooks is not reading' and 'e-readers are not real books' or even 'reading on e-readers is not really reading'. I find this behaviour disgusting.
By Annie Kapur5 years ago in Psyche
I'm Not Lazy, I'm Mentally Ill
There are some days I just can’t bring myself to get out of bed in the morning. For the most part, I usually fight through that and drag my ass out of bed, but to what end?
By Meaghan Ward5 years ago in Psyche
Why mentally ill homeless people don't seek treatment
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article appeared on News Break. I hear it all the time. Why don’t mentally ill homeless people seek treatment?
By David Heitz5 years ago in Psyche
It Was Always Ableism
Disclaimer: this is going to be a little all over the place because I haven’t fully processed a lot of what I’m speaking about here. I hope it’s at least a bit coherent.
By Cat Bog5 years ago in Psyche
Van Gogh - Genius, despair and true beauty
Aquamarine blues, golden yellows, an already beautiful scene made all the more enchanting seen through the eyes of Van Gogh. It’s hard to deny that he perceived the world differently, desperately trying to translate the swirling colours of the natural world into art.
By Josh Chandler Morris5 years ago in Psyche
On Diagnosis and Change
My childhood was a mixed bag. I mostly have early memories of living in unsavory conditions and of repeated abuse at the hands of my biological father, but I also remember my mother’s marriage to my step-father, moving into a beautiful house, and my family suddenly having money. We travelled a lot. My siblings and I got left behind in a lot of Las Vegas hotel suites while our parents gambled and partied and their friends picked fights with WWE wrestlers. That last part isn’t important, but it’s a fun little tidbit. Their friend was fine, if you don’t count the broken nose.
By Cat Bog5 years ago in Psyche
This one here is tough..
So probably like many of you my pain was something i tried very hard not to deal with. The thing is I was not only abused but my body decided to rage against me as well. Team no mercy! I have fibromyalgia and there's nothing I can really contribute that to. It just kinda chose me, makes you feel special dont it? To add to it I also have endometriosis and that on the other hand (although unknown to me for some time) i can actually boil the cause for this down to my abuse. You see what had happened was my mother had women issues bad ones problems getting pregnant, still borns, miscarriages the whole shebang. So i was almost destined if you will, to have some issues of the kind BUT here's the kicker. When i turned 14 apparently something i did said looked like who knows attracted my abuser to me. That's when it began, now fast forward a few years. I finally got the courage to go and get my first pap smear because I didn't have anyone to tell me I ever needed one and i didnt have anyone who cared enough to go with me so I wasn't alone. Needless to say it was an awful experience The dr. was old and wasn't up to date with modern procedures or something. None the less terrible. This is when i realized something was really wrong i had always had terrible periods extremely painful but the level of pain to be examined was off the charts. So now to spare you with details i had already had my virginity taken and the abuse was already happening by now so i knew of pain already. Now i reached out to a gyno to see what was wrong why it hurt so badly. I went to this dr. expecting answers and as any woman with endo can't attest this dr gave me no such things he was very unhelpful shoved birth control down my throat even went as far as telling me the pain i experienced during an exam was all in my head. Eventually though i got him to give me an exploratory surgery to try to see what he could find. Unfortunately for me this surgery turned up almost nothing or so i thought at the time he came back and told me i didn't see any endo but it could be something called PID (pelvic inflammatory disease). Never offered me any advice or any type of resolution just kind of a kick out the door. So now i had no answers and a ton of pain and even a few complications after the surgery. NOW for those of you that haven't already googled this already the right thing to do for PID would have been to start me on antibiotics and such. That did not happen in fact nothing did not until YEARS later after i got away and was married when i had surgery number two. This time new dr. SAME OFFICE mind you, but new dr. still . He informed me that not only should i have been put on antibiotics but PID is also a STD and if left untreated may cause ding ding you guess it endometriosis and cherry on the top the other dr never even bothered to document it in my records. Second surgery low and behold the endo was found and i've been dealing with that ever since. Now for me I was obviously upset about the terrible medical care but that is not really what got me. What really threw me for the loop was knowing that my abuser gave me an STD which then turned into an awful disease that I would have for the rest of my life. So even though i have managed to escape i will always not only have the emotional issues from that but i will always have a permanent physical reminder that will mess with my quality of life until i die. Lifes a bitch.
By Parker5 years ago in Psyche