Link – Kindness and Compassion, not Stigma. Change the Language to Change the Perceptions

“If you have experienced trauma in your life and developed symptoms as a result of what you experienced or witnessed, you are not mentally ill, you are normal, as your brain was designed to protect you from harm. The symptoms you experience are related to how the brain responds when there is a threat. The nervous system often gets stuck in a way that perpetuates the idea that you are still in danger. What’s needed is a way to retrain the brain so that your body will return to a state of calm and balance and so that you can feel safe again. This is what I mean by changing the way we talk about a health condition by not referring to a person as abnormal when their experience to trauma is actually normal for them. Not everyone responds to a traumatic event in the same way, and no amount of shaming or blaming someone for how their brain responds is going to be of any help.”

Sylvia suggests referring to mental health issues as simply health issues, reframing the subject completely in order to fight stigma. What do you think?

Kindness and Compassion, not Stigma. Change the Language to Change the Perceptions