It is mental illness awareness week.
You may have noticed that I don’t often focus directly on mental illnesses per se. I prefer to focus on our general human nature. The greatest compliment I get is when someone says, “Hey, you wrote about me today!” This is because I try to show how character traits and circumstances affect our emotions. If a person can see him or herself in one of my stories then it isn’t so hard to imagine another person struggling with a similar issue (at perhaps a more intense level). The goal is to help people realize that we are pretty much all in the same boat of life.
Perception of the mentally ill, while better, remains fraught with myths and stigma. While there are some physical conditions that people might be embarrassed to discuss (you won’t hear too many guys at the water cooler discussing erectile dysfunction), for the most part people are pretty open to talking about physical health. With regards to mental illness, though, the percentage of conditions we are open to discuss is far smaller.
Research has shown a pretty consistent pattern with respect to stigma. It seems the more we interact with people, the less we stigmatize. This make a lot of sense intuitively. Rather than seeing the ‘mentally ill’ as a distinct group (glad it isn’t me), we start to see the individual behind the diagnosis.
I’ve already addressed ethnic tensions in earlier posts (Reasonable accommodation, and Turbans, tabouli and identity politics) so I won’t repeat myself. However I do want to comment on the nature of the distribution of support for the proposed charter of Quebec values and how it relates to the mentality of group perception (there is less support for it in urban areas). Whether we are referring to ethnic groups or the mentally ill, the process is the same.
In today’s column, I point out that direct contact with members of a group tends to reduce stigmatization. It is especially true of our perceptions of mental illness. (See the article below).
Groupthink trumps contact
I should note that there are some glaring inconsistencies in this principle. One of them is that stigma is often higher among those who work in psychiatric institutions than in the general population. Why would that be if contact is supposed to reduce negative perceptions? I think it is because of groupthink. Contact in the general population occurs between two individuals. In a hospital, contact is between us (the staff) and them (the patients). Just think of how you feel about an ethnic group (Italians, Russians, Asians, etc) versus how you feel about a work colleague (Giovanni, Boris, Ming, etc). When we are one group against another, groupthink trumps contact between individuals.
If you want to learn more about mental illness, check out the Mental health info page of the Douglas Institute, or sign up for this year’s Mini-Psych School. Videos of lectures from all previous years are also available on the same page.
Here is today’s Metro column:
They’re not like us
(Source: Ils ne sont pas comme nous. Journal Métro, October 08, 2013)
Voir plus bas pour la version Française.This may seem like a stretch but I think the distribution of support for the government’s proposed charter of values illustrates an important principle about the way we perceive the mentally ill.
It seems there is significantly less support for the charter in urban areas than there is in rural regions. Why would that be? After all people are people. But there is a significant difference that I believe accounts for the discrepancy. Contact.
Contact, mental illness and stigma
Whether you suffer from a mental illness yourself or work in the area, one issue that pre-occupies you is the stigma surrounding it. Mental illness is a broad concept that can include serious but relatively rare conditions such as schizophrenia, to more common problems such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. The one thing that seems to tie these disparate conditions together is how people with them are made to feel. Although there has been significant progress in recent years, the mentally ill remain a stigmatized group.A significant amount of research has been done regarding the public’s perception of the mentally ill. The consistent finding is that direct contact is by far the best way to overcome stigma.
Without contact, myths prevail. People are seen as different from us. But once we start to interact with people we start to see ourselves in them. We identify with their emotions, values, and attitudes and realize that we are all pretty much made up of the same stuff. A mental illness doesn’t occur to someone who is different, it can happen to very ‘normal’ people.
Mental illness awareness week starts this weekend: a campaign created to help counter stigma in mental illness. There is a link between the effect of direct contact on how we perceive not only the mentally ill but all groups that are different from us.
Perceptions are perceptions and reality is reality. Direct contact with members of a group substitutes reality for perception. Of course, you may not like them all. Whether you are dealing with a group of professionals such as lawyers or psychologists, or members of an ethnic group, or people with mental illnesses, soon enough you will just see people: nice, not so nice, and everything in between. Some will be seen as saints and some you may dislike but at least you will judge them on personal merit rather than on what they represent. The more you interact with an individual, the more you see the person behind the label.
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Voici la version Française:
Cela peut sembler tiré par les cheveux, mais la répartition de l’appui à la charte des valeurs proposée par le gouvernement illustre un important principe sur la façon dont nous percevons les personnes atteintes de maladies mentales.
Il semble y avoir beaucoup moins d’appui pour la charte en zone urbaine qu’en région rurale. Pourquoi? Après tout, les gens sont ce qu’ils sont. Mais il existe une différence importante qui explique cet écart : le contact.
Contact, maladie mentale et stigmatisation
Que l’on souffre d’une maladie mentale ou que l’on travaille dans le milieu psychiatrique, l’une des préoccupations est la stigmatisation. La maladie mentale est un vaste concept qui englobe des problèmes de santé relativement rares, comme la schizophrénie, et plus courants, comme la dépression, l’anxiété et les troubles de l’alimentation. Le lien entre ces différents troubles est la manière dont on fait se sentir les gens qui en souffrent. Même si beaucoup de progrès ont été accomplis ces dernières années, les gens atteints de maladie mentale demeurent un groupe stigmatisé.Plusieurs recherches ont été réalisées sur la perception qu’a le public des personnes souffrant de troubles mentaux. La conclusion la plus souvent tirée est que le contact direct est la meilleure façon de dissiper la stigmatisation.
Sans contact, les mythes persistent : ces gens sont considérés comme différents de nous. Mais, une fois que nous interagissons avec les gens, nous commençons à nous voir en eux. Nous nous identifions à leurs émotions, à leurs valeurs, à leurs attitudes, et nous constatons que nous sommes faits à peu près du même bois. Une maladie mentale ne survient pas chez quelqu’un qui est « différent » : elle peut apparaître chez toute personne dite « normale ».
La Semaine de sensibilisation aux maladies mentales est en cours; cette campagne vise à contrer la stigmatisation qui entoure la maladie mentale. Il y a un lien entre l’effet du contact direct et notre perception des personnes souffrant de maladie mentale, mais aussi de tous les groupes différents de nous.
Les perceptions sont des perceptions, et la réalité est la réalité. Le contact direct avec les membres d’un groupe remplace la perception par la réalité. Bien sûr, on ne peut pas aimer tout le monde. Que vous ayez affaire à un groupe de professionnels, comme des avocats ou des psychologues, à un groupe ethnique, ou à des gens atteints de maladie mentale, vous les verrez rapidement pour ce qu’ils sont : des êtres gentils, pas très gentils, ou entre les deux. Vous considérerez certains comme des saints, et d’autres vous déplairont, mais au moins, vous les jugerez selon leurs mérites personnels, plutôt que d’après ce qu’ils représentent. Plus on interagit avec quelqu’un, plus on voit la personne derrière l’étiquette.
Tagged as groupthink, mental illness, stigma.
Posted in Human nature, Mental health.
Posted on 08 Oct 2013
