The stigma surrounding mental illness is one of the most pervasive societal problems no one cares to solve. Why should we?
Psychiatrist Julio Arboleda-Flórez argues in his article ”From Sin to Science: Fighting the Stigmatization of Mental Illnesses” that the stigma surrounding mental illness is a form of social oppression which exploits and entrenches the power imbalance between people who have mental illnesses, and those who do not.
According to Arboleda-Flórez, society overwhelmingly considers mental illness as a “blemish of individual character.” This is established by assuming people with mental illnesses are “blameworthy,” and can control their disease if they wanted.
I would argue society as a whole is on shaky ground the moment we start blaming someone for a chemical imbalance in their brain.
When is the last time you laughed at someone with a broken leg as they struggled to walk? “They’re lying about having a broken leg. They’re just being dramatic. If they were just more optimistic, their broken leg would heal on its own.” Were these some of your thoughts? Of course not.
However, when someone says they are feeling depressed, anxious or experiencing hallucinations, we shove it aside. “They should just cheer up, calm down or take a nap.”
Arboleda-Flórez proposes society treats mental illness as an identity. We often hear things like, “she is bipolar” or “he is OCD.” The person no longer matters, and the illness might as well be the person’s name.
Whereas physical illnesses are not the same. When someone has cancer, we do not label these people as their illness. We never say, “she is cancer;” instead we say, “she has cancer.”  Discrimination occurs when these microaggressions are solely applied and limited to one people group, which inevitably becomes the minority.
Psychologist and author, Otto F. Wahl surveyed people with mental illnesses in his book, ” Telling is Risky Business.” An anonymous participant noted how society ignores people with mental illnesses.
“The suffering of mental illness is just incredible…the suffering. I can’t emphasize that enough because I think a physical affliction would never have been as painful as mental illness. Because of the stigma, because of the people turning their backs and walking away. It’s like stepping over a dead body. If you were dying on the street, literally dying, and people just kinda blasé and stepped over you… how would you feel?”