The Social Stigma Of Mental Illness

A schizophrenic man who was earlier talking to himself at a coffee shop, suddenly started shouting and scolding the people around him. One thought invariably comes into the minds of bystanders, "Why isn't this person institutionalised in a mental hospital?" Even as a healthcare provider, I have to shamefully admit that I sometimes feel the same way too.

Mental illness is so different from medical illness. While people with medical illness like diabetes, heart disease and cancer receive empathy and compassion from others, people with mental illness, on the other hand, are sadly ostracized by society. While people with medical illness tend to recover and resume their daily activities, people with mental illness are mostly unable to return their original level of functioning and often go into acute relapses when they do not take their medication. Even when they are stabilised, they may not behave like normal people. They may exhibit residual symptoms of their illness, as what the layman describes as, behaving in a weird manner. They often talk and gesticulate to themselves, oblivious to what people around them think of them. This is because their perception of reality has been impaired by their illness and they become less aware of their surroundings. Living in a society with emphasis on normality, their unusual behaviour is often ridiculed and criticised by passers-by, causing them to be socially withdrawn over time. Their family and caregivers also face tremendous stress as they are more likely to be embarrassed in public.

Indeed, people with mental illness do require more empathy and compassion from the public yet they are sadly treated otherwise. Although the government has been actively educating the public on mental illness, our perspective of people with mental illness still remained unchanged. Even as healthcare providers who are equipped with the knowledge and experience of treating people with mental illness, the majority of us are still very reluctant to acquiant and associate with them outside the hospital. Maybe it's time we approach them with an understanding that it is not their choice to be inflicted with mental illness and that they should be given an equal chance to live like the rest of us. Maybe if we take the first step and show the public that it is possible, they will have a higher chance of recovery and a brighter tomorrow.