The dangers associated with self-administered medicine and other substances
However, people who need to take psychiatric medicine are still subject to a host of stigmatizing attitudes. These attitudes range from the implication that they hadn’t tried hard enough to overcome their condition, to recommendations that all they need is to exercise and stick to a particular diet.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada declared that stigma affects 40% of people seeking medical help for anxiety or depression.
Many of these more than 46 million people would benefit from taking physical medicine. However, the stigma associated with taking psychiatric medication is one of the most significant barriers people face when deciding whether to take them.
It was estimated that around one in five people in the US suffered from mental illness in 2017.
Stigma doesn’t just hurt patients during treatment, but long after treatment has finished too.
The lack of understanding of how antidepressants and other kinds of psychiatric medications work isn't uncommon. Rethink Mental Illness, a mental health charity in England, shared that the language used in describing psychiatric medications is often "dismissive and reductive."
How mental health is spoken about (or avoided) in communities plays a role in attitudes and behaviors towards mental health and psychiatric medicine.
A prevalent issue surrounding mental health and psychiatric medicine is that people define themselves or others by their illness, either knowingly or unknowingly.
Overcoming the stigmatization of psychiatric drugs comes only through education, empathy, and advocacy, according to Dr. Dimitrios Tsatiris, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Northeast Ohio Medical University.
This is why the language we use is so important surrounding mental health. One common misuse of language, for example, is someone saying “I am bipolar” instead of “I have bipolar disorder.”
How we speak, including the specific language we use surrounding mental health and psychiatric medicine, fuels the stigma.
The first way of saying it suggests that the person is their mental health disorder. The second way of saying it helps separate the person from the illness. No one is an illness.
CAMH advises that people should educate themselves and examine their critical thinking regarding mental health.
Education, according to CAMH, is a must to prevent mental health stigma. As mental health and psychiatric medicine are closely linked, it is said that education is the key to overcoming the stigma on psychiatric medication too.
Psychology and the understanding of the human mind is a recent phenomenon within the context of humanity.
Support groups are a fantastic way for people to achieve the support they need regarding mental health treatment. These groups often also educate the patients, their families, and the broader community on mental health.
Encouraging those seeking support sounds very simple, but is vital in battling the stigma surrounding mental health and psychiatric medicine.
Stigma or the fear of stigma may deter someone from seeking help and treatment for their mental illness.
Emily Hionides-Horner, a Summa Health outpatient therapist in Northeast Ohio, notes that support is a huge part of overcoming mental health and psychiatric medicine stigmas.
The stigma is rooted in societal misconceptions. According to the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, people are twice as likely to believe that mentally ill people tend to be violent today as they were in the 1950s.
A survey of US military veterans conducted in coordination with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that of 200 individuals seeking psychiatric medical attention that had been prescribed medication, over one-half reported feeling uncomfortable disclosing or feeling judged. About one-fifth reported feeling embarrassed.
The dialogue on mental health, at least in much of the Western world, has partly been fueled by celebrities opening up about their mental health issues.
For example, Gustav Fechner began conducting psychophysics research in Leipzig, Germany in the 1830s. This was one of the first notable studies of the human conscious and unconscious. Sigmund Freud's notable works weren't published until the latter years of the 19th century.
For example, the average person may not know much more about mental health and psychiatric medicine than they do about the lymphatic system.
However, they will have heard about asylums. These barbaric institutions, which provided medical health 'treatment' to patients, may have something to do with why mental health stigma still exists today.
But it is not true that people who suffer from mental illnesses are more likely to be violent. According to the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, people who have a mental illness are actually two and a half times more likely to be victims of violence than people who don't have a mental illness.
The stigma surrounding psychiatric medication can only be understood in the context of mental health stigma in general.
Educate others respectfully about mental illness to help promote change. In doing this, it will be directly opposing discrimination against people who require treatment.
Sources: (PsychCentral)(American Psychological Association)(MVPediatrics)(Patient)(Medium)(CAMH)(NIH)
See also: Everyday things you didn’t realize are harming your mental health
Psychiatric medications treat the physical aspects of mental illnesses. For example, certain medications may work by managing certain chemicals in the brain, just as statin manages cholesterol levels in the blood. But why is it still such a vaguely understood and stigmatized form of treatment? Why are these medications perceived differently from other medicines that treat strictly physical ailments, like an infection?
Click through the following gallery to understand the root of this stigma and how it can be overcome.
Overcoming the stigma surrounding psychiatric medication
Is the stigma surrounding mental health alive and well?
HEALTH Mental health
Psychiatric medications treat the physical aspects of mental illnesses. For example, certain medications may work by managing certain chemicals in the brain, just as statin manages cholesterol levels in the blood. But why is it still such a vaguely understood and stigmatized form of treatment? Why are these medications perceived differently from other medicines that treat strictly physical ailments, like an infection?
Click through the following gallery to understand the root of this stigma and how it can be overcome.