How mental health STIGMA plays out in daily life.
Siri tells me the definition of stigma is:
"A mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person."
Back in the day, mental illness was something families kept hidden. If your family member was mentally ill, stigma felt like a thick, dark, looming cloud. It choked off conversation about the realities and difficulties facing families dealing with fragile psyches. It was too painful to be open about, because everyone judged. The stigma was palpable. Those struggling were misunderstood and most folks feared them. As time passed, mature reasoning and education has enlightened the masses. Now, we realize that depression and anxiety, for example, can be normal reactions to life's hardest challenges. We all have emotional days, to a certain degree. We all have individual DNA, unique experineces, and we all handle things in our own way. Depending on what you've experienced, your emotional reaction will reflect that. It's Newton's third law: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Life is balanced like that, and that's normal.
We all feel sadness, joy, fear, anger... We have these wonderful emotions for a reason. They make us human, they connect our hearts. Without emotions, there would be no feelings...no color. Yuck. I don't know about you, but living in shades of black, white, and gray isn't how I want to see or FEEL life! There would be less beauty, art, expression, less affect/affection, and NO LOVE.
