Twenty years ago Congress established the first week of October as Mental Health Awareness Week. For twenty years, nonprofits, 
companies and government agencies have fought to remove the stigma around mental illness and still continue to do so today.
This fight has started much more recently in the South Asian community. Small successes of this struggle are seen in the fact that mental health issues are addressed in mainstream Bollywood movies such as pervasive developmental disorders (like autism) in Tare Zameen Par and suicide in Three Idiots. However, there still is a significant amount of resistance in talking about or acknowledging that anyone can be living with a mental health issue. The incidence of mental illness even in the South Asian community is so high that it is safe to say every South Asian knows at least 1 person living with an emotional issue. Think about it this way. Have you ever known someone to not be able to sleep because they were stressed? How about someone who was so down that they didn’t find happiness and joy in the activities that used to make them happy? Or what about someone who was so nervous or stressed their blood pressure skyrocketed? Most likely you said yes to at least one of those questions in which case you know someone who has had a mental health issue at one point or another.
Despite its relatively high prevalence rate, South Asians continue to maintain the view that mental illness is something that happens to “other people” and it is not in the South Asian culture or not in their family. The stigma still remains fixed.
To have stigma against mental health issues is to stereotype, discriminate against and be prejudiced towards anyone who shows signs and symptoms of mental illness. For example:
All depressed people cry constantly.
(This stereotype – and myth – of depression fails to consider that symptoms of depression look different depending on the person. This misconception prevents individuals who have varying symptoms from getting adequate support from friends and family.)
I don’t like people who talk to themselves.
(Prejudice is simply a negative attitude or feeling toward a person just because they belong to a certain group, in this case a group of people who talk to themselves or have psychotic symptoms. Prejudice inhibits interaction with a person living with mental illness and perpetuates stigma.)
I won’t let my child go to Raja’s birthday party because I don’t want him to be influenced by autistic children.
(Discrimination is treating someone unfairly or hurting them just because they belong to a particular group, such as children with autism. Discrimination makes the others feel alienated, isolated and like something is wrong with them.)
When all three occur together, we have stigma.
The challenge is to take distant support of mental illness and turn it into hands-on action. Let’s start the dialogue and stop isolating people who could lead successful, healthy lives if they receive appropriate treatment and are accepted by their friends and family.
Take the challenge! No matter how hard, awkward or embarrassing it my feel, break the barrier and do at least one of the following to reduce stigma against mental illness this week:
1. Read a book or article on a mental health topic that you have been curious about or interested in. (Email MySahana for suggestions.)
2. Begin a discussion with your family or friends about a mental health topic even if it does not pertain to you specifically (e.g. why do you think people commit suicide? or what do you think children feel when their parents divorce?)
3. Call or meet with a trusted friend or family member if you have been feeling down, stressed or anxious and tell them how you are feeling.
4. Forward a MySahana or other mental health-related article to a friend or family member to spread awareness about emotional health topics.
5. Think of your friend or family member who you have been concerned about and call them to see how they are feeling. Listen intently and without judgment.
6. Watch a movie on a topic related to mental health issues. (Email MySahana for suggestions.)
7. Be careful of the language you use. Stop using words like “crazy” or “insane” to describe someone with an emotional issue.
8. Beware of labels. Calling someone a schizophrenic implies their identity is based on their illness. Instead, saying a woman living with schizophrenia shows that she has more to her than her diagnosis.
9. Write down what your stereotypes, prejudices and discriminatory behaviors are regarding specific mental health issues (e.g. depression, stress, schizophrenia, etc.)
10. Ask someone who has openly shared that they have lived with mental health issues what their experience has been like.
Will you take the challenge? Which of these will you do to help reduce the stigma this week?
We would love to hear your response to this article! Please feel free to leave a comment.