Let's be honest, anyone with any sort of mental health problem has probably received discrimination about their problems at least once. You may think, "oh mental health problems are too common for there still to be stigma surrounding it." Well, yes, you're right. Mental health problems are common, but there's still them stupid idiots that don't actually understand anything about mental illnesses and feel the need to judge you for it.
Here, have some stats that I'm about to throw in your face.
Here, have some stats that I'm about to throw in your face.
- 1 in 4 people will experience a mental illness at some point in their lives.
- 1 in 10 young people experience mental health problems.
- Depression affects 1 in 12 of the entire population.
- Rates of self-harm in the UK are the highest in Europe at 400 per 100,000.
- 450 million people worldwide have a mental health problem.
- Nearly 3 in 4 young people fear the reactions of their friends when they talk about their mental health problems.
450 million people worldwide have a mental health problem and people still feel the need to judge. Excuse me whilst I come over there and slap you really hard in the face. That's ridiculous. Don't get me started on getting a job. Trying to get a job whilst having a mental health problem is the worst thing, when you fill out the equal rights form they ask if you have a disability or a mental illness, I know I definitely don't make a point of putting that on my job application. Not because I'm ashamed or anything like that, but because the majority of employers are the type of people that'll discriminate against you hard for having a mental illness. And don't even get me started on if I had a panic attack whilst at work, my employer would see/hear about it and I'd get chucked straight away. Yes, we sign the 'equal rights' form so that people believe the employer isn't going to judge you, but we all know what a load of crap that is. I mean, you go to an interview and it's between you and another person. You're suffering from a mental illness that your possible employer knows about and the other person has a mental illness but hasn't told the employer, who do you think is going to get the job? It's wrong, but the person that didn't tell the potential employer.
People also believe that people with mental illnesses might just come up to you and attack you in the middle of the street? Hahah, no. Most people with mental illnesses won't have the confidence to even walk up to you, let alone attack you. People with mental illnesses are more likely to hurt themselves than you.
The media. Oh golly, the media. The media like to make up all sorts of nonsense regarding mental illnesses and they're 75% of the problem and are putting thoughts into people's heads.
Here, have some more statistics regarding mental health and the media:
- Over a 3 month period 74 programmes contained storylines on mental health issues of these there were 33 instances of violence to others and 53 examples of harm to self
- Almost half were sympathetic portrayals, but these often portrayed the characters as tragic victims
- the most commonly referred to condition was depression, which was mentioned 19 times, breakdown was mentioned 8 times and bi-polar 7.
- 63% of references to mental health in TV soaps and drama were "pejorative, flippant or unsympathetic" terms included: "crackpot", "a sad little psycho", "basket case" , "where did you get her from?", "Care in the Community?" and "he was looney tunes"
Like come on, for gods sake. Imagine walking past someone that's aware of your mental illness for one reason or another and you get called a 'sad little psycho' or a 'basket case'. That's not okay. Newspapers are also good examples to use, they pretty much all the time describe people with mental illnesses as 'violent', 'criminals', 'shouldn't be allowed in the community', 'they're evil'. Oh god, sorry, to me that sounds like you're describing a serial killer, not a normal person in society who has a few problems going on in their head. Society nowadays actually disgusts me.
I went to the doctors a few months ago regarding anxiety medication and the doctor asked me if there's any background of mental illnesses in the family, and my mum told him that she'd suffered from depression before and her mum had a few mental illnesses. And do you want to know what his response was? "That's fine, that's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. It's like you telling me your family has a history of high blood pressure or diabetes or something." He was probably the nicest doctor I've ever seen regarding my mental health. I've seen a few doctors who've just shrugged me off their shoulders and turned me away. It's doctors like them that aren't worth working for the NHS, they aren't giving people the help they need. Here's another example, I went to the doctors regarding my past problem with Trichotillomania (the act of pulling ones hair out), all I wanted to know is if there was anyone I could see about it or anything and the exact words of the doctor were "come back when you have bald patches all over your head." I'M SORRY, I'VE JUST APPROACHED YOU LOOKING FOR HELP AND YOU'RE GOING TO TURN ME AWAY AND GIVE ME THAT 'OH WELL YOU LOOK OKAY THEREFORE NOTHING CAN BE GOING ON IN YOUR HEAD, DON'T BE STUPID' CRAP? For some mad reason, that doctor no longer works at the doctor's surgery I go to and specifically asked not to see him ever again regarding any of my doctor's appointments. Back to the point, that first doctor was completely right, mental health problems are nothing strange or weird, it's exactly the same as having high blood pressure or a problem with your joints, only the people with problems with their joints don't get crap for whatever it is that's wrong with them.
This has been the rantiest rant I've ever written on this matter and it felt good to just write it all down. I hope the statistics were of some use and you understand that mental illnesses are nothing to be feared in society.
Thank you for reading,
Rachel. xo
