In the past two weeks I have read a book called 'Drop the Disorder' that has completely changed my perspective on mental health labels, identified in the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual for Mental Health Disorders 5th Edition (DSM-5). The information provided in this book has made me realise just how much these labels can impact upon an individual and have a negative impact on their life both in the short term as well as the long term (Lynch, 2019).
One of the main reasons that I have found this to be so enlightening is that it comes from active professionals who have both experience of working with people who have mental health conditions, but a lot of them also have lived experiences of mental health and as a result they are able to draw from their own experiences of how labels have impacted their lives (Deurzen, 2019). If you were to experience the impact a label relating to mental health can have first hand, would you sit by and let it continue? or would you fight for the shift that is needed to improve the stigma and negativity that is so often attached? if everyone took a stand to stop the stigma, change could be made and people would not be disadvantaged as a result of a traumatic experience.
In 'Drop the Disorder' there is a large amount of focus on psychosis and Bipolar and how these conditions are deemed to be incurable and only manageable using antipsychotic medication (Read and Magliano, 2019), this as a statement, in itself, seems barbaric. What makes people think that recovery is impossible? There is no scientific evidence. No known biological influence. No known hereditary aspects. How can someone say that recovery is not possible when there is no evidence to back it up? (Read and Magliano, 2019). The use of person-centred therapy, like counselling and psychotherapy, could help someone overcome their diagnosis and allow for them to experience life to its fullest. Maybe some aspects of the mental health condition will still be evident in the individual, but they could be managed using therapy as opposed to medication which impacts upon an individual’s ability to function (Read and Magliano, 2019). Why suppress aspects of the diagnosis with medication when you can help an individual learn to live with them effectively without medication?
For many years people who have experienced mental health difficulties have experienced stigma and have often been disadvantaged as a result of their experiences, even if their response to the event/trauma was completely understandable (Lynch, 2019). One example of a group of people who have been disadvantaged at the hands of mental health is women. For years women have been placed into mental health hospitals at the hands of men for the most controversial things, from simply not wanting to be a housewife or even wanting to pursue a career as an author, they were often sent to these hospitals by their male family members due to them not fitting into their idea of what a woman should be (Chesler, 2018). Do you think that is fair? The way in which women are disadvantaged could be linked to the power imbalance that often occurs between men and women, this could be more effectively dealt with through the use of the Power Threat Meaning Framework, of which will be covered in more depth later on (The British Psychological Society, 2020). The experiences of the women mentioned above in are traumatic and there is no wonder some of them felt as though suicide was the only option (Chesler, 2018). This is precisely the reason that we need to make a change! Innocent people should not be pushed to their limits simply because they aren't seen as being someone else's idea of 'normal'. What even is 'normal' anyway? Who has the right to decide what is 'normal' for other people?
Would you rather have sat by and let people be disadvantaged because of their mental health?
OR
Would you rather make a stand to allow for change and help STOP THE STIGMA OF MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS?