Sharing – Why Most Efforts to Address Mental Health Stigma Miss the Mark

We’ve done a lot of work to eliminate stigma over the years. It’s nearly impossible to argue that there is a significant number of people in the US who don’t know about mental health, or understand that it’s not uncommon. And yet, we still have a stigma problem:

A common tactic in anti-stigma efforts is the dissemination of educational content designed to correct misconceptions about mental illness. While increasing awareness is valuable, Corrigan’s work often emphasizes how stigma is not merely a byproduct of ignorance; it’s deeply rooted in societal attitudes and emotional responses. This complexity means that simply providing information is insufficient to dismantle entrenched biases.?

https://mentalhealth411.substack.com/p/why-most-efforts-to-address-mental

The link above describes the situation in more detail and discusses the additional work needed to eliminate stigma, both at the personal and structural levels. You should read it.

As I was reading it, a comparison occurred to me. We know there are a lot of people who struggle with their mental health. It’s not that we aren’t educated about the facts of mental health.

However, stereotypes are more challenging to overcome. It’s the same as knowing that a minority or a woman could be qualified to be in their position and assuming the one I see in front of me probably isn’t. It’s the default assumption, and it’s both personal and structural. It’s the belief that someone with anxiety or depression is likely to be too much effort to befriend or work with, versus being involved with someone we are closely connected with who has depression.

It’s saying to ourselves that we understand that there are people who struggle, even when we feel bad for them, and we also want to make sure we don’t get too involved with them. So, we quietly accept that employers make it more challenging to hire and retain someone who might be struggling, or insurance companies make it practically impossible to get mental healthcare because it’s only impacting other people, the ones we aren’t close to.

Until it happens to be someone we are close to. But having watched us do everything in our power to distance ourselves from any individual who might struggle, we’d be unlikely even to know that the people we refuse to fight for are those we care about and not “other people” we don’t know.

That stigma goes well beyond public education campaigns. That stigma is the responsibility of each one of us.