Member-only story
The Stigma We Inflict on Ourselves
And the affirmation that we share to reject it
Stigmas are undeserved negative attitudes towards groups of people on the basis of certain characteristics. These characteristics lead to reactions that discriminate against them and often deprive them of the respect and support to which they are entitled.
The attitudes around mental health/mental illness are longstanding and interfere with appropriate attention. But they are much more complicated.
Stigmas don’t necessarily have to be cruel or withholding. They can just reflect wrong thinking. They don’t need to be targeted on “others.”
Sometimes the worst stigma is what we inflict on ourselves.
It is a mark, a tattoo, a brand that announces how much we hate ourselves for the debilitating symptoms that crush us, and for the seeming impossibility of healing ourselves.
That is the impossible “Dduble whammy” that marks so many of us when we struggle with a mental illness. Most of us can quote the party line — that our condition is not our fault, we have an illness, our illness can be “cured” with the right treatment, that we need to be assertive in combatting or correcting people's stupidity.
