Stigma

 

 

 

Stigma versus education
When someone doesn't conform to the spectrum of social norms, one becomes victim of stigma. What is the stigma? And who feeds that monster? Stigma is ridiculing and pointing a finger of disapproval at someone or something that doesn't fit nor agree with our everyday understanding or acceptance of "normal." I became very aware of this term when my son became ill. I truly was exposed to the same stigmatization, and I wanted to research the source for this mass disapproval and fear of the illness.
Movies....
a very few movies tackle the subject of mental illness with the purpose of educating the masses. I could name few movies that had that purpose: "A beautiful mind" is one of my favorites were Russell Crow did an excellent job portraying the illness.
However, Some horror movie producers exploit mental disease. Why? Stigma has become a money maker, therefore, creating and stretching the unfamiliarity around it. Mentally ill patients are portraited in these movies as killers, monsters and damaged souls.

Mainstream use of expressions relating to the illness
Too many of us use the following expressions: Are you crazy? Isn't it insane? This is nuts...etc. These have become trendy which we use, and we ill-use ad nauseam.
When the "world" portrays mental illness as a shame, we become ashamed, it is a normal instinctive reaction at first. Nevertheless, as parents of our sons and daughters who are afflicted with mental illnesses, we must rise above the occasion by enlightening as much as we can, as often as we can to create an informative ripple effect to help our children, and ourselves navigate through it all when we are positioned in the eye of the storm.