Mental Health Support

I don't know if you have a DU incarnation prior to your current username, you may be aware that posts about this have been made.

The issue in this group is to share your experiences around mental illness, and it has been discussed in this forum in relation to individual group participants difficulties with it and --prior to the creation of the Mental Health Information group--about the national trend to target the mentally ill as the major problem with gun violence.

It seems to me that dealing with the problems associated with learning to cope with the stigma (note cope doesn't mean accept) that impacts you directly or which you simply fear would be fine within this group.

Information sharing and discussion of published articles/books on stigma is certainly a topic that could be discussed in MHIG. MHIG is broadly open to information sharing.

People who are around mental illness are well aware of stigma. We can and do get mad about it. As I wrote before, being sad, angry, and frustrated are all reasonable responses to being hit with it. But behavior that is indicative of anger, particularly what looks like a loss of temper, or is highly emoitional is problematic when confronting people who are bigoted about the mentally ill. Emotionality and anger is what they look for as evidence that the mentally ill are "crazy".

It's quite challenging to know enough about the costs of stigma to have an informed position to garner respect while maintaining a deliberate coolness that doesn't arouse anger (people hate to be called, or even linked to the bigotry in their word choice) in yourself or others.

There are many groups outside DU that are working to stop/end the stigma. The advocacy and activity you want might be found in one of them.

If you can, do a bit of poking around the internet and find groups such as this: