Three ways stigmatizing people with a diagnosis of a mental illness can harm their lives …

Chances are high that you’ve heard about how many people place a stigma on people who have been diagnosed as having a mental illness. I think most people don’t understand just how devastating being stigmatized can be. For a person with mental illness, it can directly affect their well-being and quality of life to the point of ruining their lives.

That’s because there’s nothing good about stigma. Look closely at Dictionary.com’s definition of the word:

A mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one’s reputation.

All that for having something that is, literally, an ILLNESS!

Let me share with you just three key ways stigmatizing people with mental illness can harm them:

1. Stigma devalues a person. Instead of looking at every human being as someone who bears the image of their Creator, stigma devalues people from the value God has given them and claims such people are “less” than others … broken, odd, different, “not all there,” weird, incapable … less than. You can imagine how such mean-spirited treatment would hurt the hearts of anyone treated that way. Tragically, some people with mental illness are so routinely devalued by others that they begin to believe the message that they really are “less than” everyone else.

2. Stigma tempts people to not get the help they need. NO ONE wants to be devalued and be treated as being “less than,” so many people who experience mental illness shun getting the help they need in an effort to avoid being diagnosed as being mentally ill. The tragedy of this is that data has conclusively proven that a large majority of people can overcome their mental illness, or at least live a well-adjusted, quality life if they receive the clinical care they need. But the fear of stigma drives many to avoid seeking this help to prevent against anyone finding out they are suffering from a mental illness. This directly harms the mentally ill in a serious way.

3. Stigma fosters discrimination. Many people who stigmatize the mentally ill go beyond that to discriminating against them. Such harmful discrimination is seen in various ways, including:

• • Discrimination regarding employment and housing. Many employers are not willing to hire people with a mental illness, and finding housing can often be difficult. Such discrimination can result in people with mental illness being forced into poverty and even homelessness.
  • Discrimination regarding relationships. Most people wouldn’t admit in public that they would shun a relationship with a person with a mental illness, but in the anonymity of research studies, many have admitted they would be less inclined to have a friendship or consider for marriage someone who is mentally ill. Data also shows that some families are not supportive of family members with mental illness and may withdraw from them. Such discrimination results in painful and harmful social isolation.
  • Discrimination resulting in hostile treatment. There is a public perception that people with mental illness, especially those suffering from severe mental illness, are more dangerous than others. However, research has proven that is a false perception. In fact, research has revealed that people with mental illness are sometimes more likely to be victims of crime because of their mental illness.
  • Discrimination in the church. There are a multitude of stories relating how people with mental illness have been shunned from fellowship within the church. Such shunning results in people lacking the supporting fellowship of the church, not being fully (or at all) welcomed into the worship services, and denied opportunity to serve and use the spiritual gifts God has given them to be used in the church. This is harmful to the spiritual formation and spiritual well-being of those who are shunned.

Stigma goes beyond hurting people with mental illness, it harms them. Never be guilty of it and do everything you can to destroy it.

Scotty