Various efforts are being done to raise awareness about mental health disorders in celebration of "Mental Health Awareness Month", especially with Hollywood stars slowly admitting them publicly. With increased awareness, the community hopes it will hopefully end the stigma surrounding the disease.
'Girls Approach' In Discussing Mental Health Disorders
An article from TIME discussed one way on how to end the stigma of mental health disorders. According to Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, the society needs a "Girls" approach when it comes to everyday conversations about mental health disorders. Representative Johnson is referring to the Lena Dunham's hit HBO-series "Girls."
The HBO series "Girls" illustrates the reality of having mental disorders without losing its humor and appeal to the audience. Unlike the often-abused term OCD, "Girls" show how it feels to constantly fear OCD and deal with the disorder whenever you fall back into it. Simply put, the show lets us understand how mental disorder is truly a disease.
Kristen Bell, who admitted to having anxiety earlier this month, perfectly summed up how it's like to have a mental disorder. "If you do decide to go on a prescription to help yourself, understand that the world wants to shame you for that, but in the medical community, you would never deny a diabetic his insulin. Ever," the "Frozen" star said to Sam Jones on Off Camera. "But for some reason, when someone needs a serotonin inhibitor, they're immediately crazy or something."
Mental Health Awareness Month: 5 Ways to Put Your Wellbeing First https://t.co/7ewj2aFfOY
— SwimSwam (@swimswamnews) May 22, 2016
Open Discussion About Mental Health Disorders
So many lives lost because of the stigma surround mental health disorders. The patients' anxiety is compounded by their fear that they would be labeled as crazy or weak. This will lead them to keep their struggles hidden from everyone. Worse, people surrounding them refused to acknowledge that it is a disease, leading to suicide most of the time.
Just like what happened to Renee Tanner's husband who committed suicide nine months ago. By then, medical help was too late. On her blog, she discussed how social stigma hinders a lot of patients to seek treatment. She admitted that no matter how hard they tried to let him feel his worth, he still felt he wasn't good enough.
"One thing I will never know is this: If he hadn't been afraid of what people would think of him, or how they would treat him, would he still be alive today?" Let us all help stop the stigma and spread awareness about mental health disorder.
