It comes down to the idea that it’s okay to acknowledge our brains can get sick, too, and that there is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to this reality.Īll we’re doing by adding the label of a specific mental illness or of mental health, in general, is saying how our brains are sick, which then helps us with managing the issue and allows us to determine how we can properly treat it. This is how I look at mental illnesses: it just means we have an area of our brains that is unwell, not that we as a whole are unwell. To me, it came across as she didn’t like the idea of being unwell. The reason I decided to write this post is that I saw a post about someone who didn’t want to acknowledge her disorder as a mental illness. It probably sounds like an oxymoron to even read that subheading, but let me explain. Having a Mental Illness Does Not Mean You’re Unwell But you can remove self-stigma from mental health labels. I’m talking about the self-stigma we feel when it comes to labels – whether the generalized “mental health” or “mental illness” label or more specific ones like depression or bipolar or whatever mental illness it is you deal with. When I think about it now, it kind of seems self-evident, but it really struck me just how much of an issue it is. An interesting realization came to me the other day. Mental health labels can cause self-stigma, but they don't have to.
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