'Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all' - Bill Clinton

Stigma around mental illness is unfortunately, extremely common. You’d think that with the rise of social media, an increase in access to general knowledge as well as advancements by the human race would have made a considerable improvement the way that we perceive mental health. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Sociologist Erving Goffman wrote the groundbreaking book, “Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity” in 1963, discussing the origins behind the word stigma as well as how it is perpetuated within society. For the most part, there is a particular detriment of having to deal with the stigma that comes arm-in-arm with any diagnosis itself. Even in our “advanced” and “modern” society, there is a distinct lack of knowledge regarding what it is like to live with a mental health issue. The media continues to portray a misleading image of mental health, which works concurrently with the increase in mental health diagnoses due to social media. In turn, a vicious cycle is created that many people find hard to escape as the internet and social media continue to play an increasing role in our lives. Programs such as the Heads together initiative, headed by The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have been developed in order to tackle the fear of discrimination that comes with any mental health concern. So, let us delve into the advantages and disadvantages of dealing with a mental illness in the 21st century - including the opportunities and obstacles that the internet has provided -, the increased vocalisation that there has been concerning stigma around mental health issues, and the conspicuous stigma that still remains.

In the 21st century, the internet plays an extremely important role in most people’s lives. As of 2019, it was explained that we spend an average of 6 hours and 42 minutes of our time online. Since the media is an ever-growing source of information for people in their daily lives, it is important that the information is accurate. When it comes to the way that mental illnesses are represented, it is unfortunately very negative. In a review about how the media cover mental illnesses, Zexin Ma explained that “Media still portray mental illnesses negatively in general, which contributes to the ongoing mental illness stigmatization.” Movies, TV Series, Articles, Social Media Influencers, YouTube Videos and Online blogs are just a few examples of the ways we are able to access information. If the attitudes towards portrayal of mental illness by the media shows it to be mostly aggressive, undesirable, and dangerous - without any contextual information provided - then it becomes increasingly hard to break through the powerful cycle that is stigma. Furthermore, it is important to take note of the increase in mental health issues that social media has caused in particular. As a seventeen year old growing up in the 21st century, I understand the extent to which social media plays a role in our daily lives. The fact is that we spend a lot of our time on apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and even TikTok looking at a lot of different people, places and things. Whether it be looking at edited pictures of celebrities that make us self conscious about our bodies, or insensitive memes that ridicule a serious topic, we’re seeing it right in front of us all the time and it is extremely damaging to our mental health. As you can see, an extremely toxic cycle is created with social media damaging our mental health and the media failing to accurately represent ways in which we can try and fix it.

“Mental illness strikes with a two-edged sword. On one side are the harmful effects of symptoms and disabilities that prevent people from achieving personal goals. On the other are the egregious effects of stigma, the prejudice and discrimination of a community that blocks personal aspirations.” This quote by Patrick Corrigan has perhaps perfectly summed up the damaging experience which is a mental health diagnosis in the 21st century. The double edged sword concept is the perfect way to explain how people suffering from mental health issues not only have to battle the disease itself, but the harmful society we live in which only seems to be working against them .

There are a multitude of reasons why stigma around mental health disorders still exists, and one of the more obvious ones is the lack of information that there is available to us. Even while researching, I found it quite difficult to find much worthwhile information regarding the topic, which is likely a result of the media’s habitual misrepresentation of mental illnesses. The absence of serious representation regarding mental illnesses is often due to the fact that more time, energy and attention is given to physical illnesses whereby external parties are able to witness the symptoms themselves. The mere fact that symptoms of mental illnesses are ‘invisible’ and that a diagnosis requires a comparison to a subjectively ‘normal’ person makes diagnoses very hard. Often you will hear a friend or family member tell someone suffering with a mental health issue to try and ‘be more positive’ or ‘not think such negative things.’ which is a complete double standard. It would be deemed absurd to tell someone diagnosed with the flu to just ‘stop being sick’ so why is so much inappropriate advice still given to people suffering from a mental illness? A simple answer is that people just don’t know what they’re talking about. Is that something that you can blame them for, or just another detrimental consequence of the media’s lack of valuable information? Regardless, efforts should still be made to set up anti-stigma programs in order to combat this issue.

Erving Goffman introduced a key concept known as ‘courtesy stigma’, or otherwise, Stigma-by-association. This is significant amongst families, where they may feel ashamed to be associated with someone suffering from a mental disorder, which often comes as a direct consequence of the lack of information surrounding mental illnesses. It is in these circumstances where anti-stigma programs are particularly important, to eradicate the outrageous preconceptions that surround mental illness diagnoses . Arguably, the families of people with mental health disorders play the most significant role in their lives. They are often the people that we spend the most time with; the ones we look up to the most; and of course the general environment in which we compare ourselves to. More often than not, do mental illnesses result from the family home, whereby people have been stuck in a toxic cycle of battling their own thoughts and feelings as well as contradictory opinions coming from the people around them. This emphasises the importance of education around mental illnesses for family members in order to dissolve ideas of courtesy stigma.

To conclude my thoughts on the statement, I think that it is very clear that stigma surrounding mental health disorders is its own immense issue. We live in the 21st century and there is a very common misconception that, since we are in the “modern” world and we have increased access to certain resources, that it automatically translates to more “awareness.” Therefore, people tend to immediately assume that stigma no longer exists. This is in fact completely ignorant. We may have increased access to resources via the internet and other means, but that does not mean that everything we’re hearing, seeing and liking is accurate and helpful. As a matter of fact it usually isn’t. To sum up, I want to return to another of Erving Goffman’s theories. He discusses the concept of the ‘wise’ as he says “Wise persons are the marginal men before whom the individual with a fault need feel no shame nor exert self - control , knowing that in spite of his failing he will be seen as an ordinary other.” I think that we should all aim to be ‘wise’ and make those who have been unfairly marginalized feel accepted in society, as the battle against stigma regarding mental health is an ongoing one that requires a collective effort from all of society.

Charlotte Rodney 12E