Removing The Stigma of Mental Illness

IN ORDER TO READ THE WORDS MORE CLEARLY, PLEASE WATCH IN HIGH QUALITY MODE.

It is human nature to fear what we don't understand.

Due to misunderstandings and inaccuracies made by the media,(everything from news reports to movies for example) our society's view has been distorted, which has created stigma about certain mental illnesses.

DEFINITION OF STIGMA:
a mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation.

DEFINITION OF MENTAL ILLNESS:
n. Any of various conditions characterized by impairment of an individual's normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other factors, such as infection or head trauma.
Also called emotional illness, mental disease, mental disorder. 'dictionary.com'

Bottom line is that we all must get more educated and stop using our fears as excuses.

For more info on mental illnesses:
www.cma.ca
www.cmha.ca
www.camh.net

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[entropycompton]

Overall, I believe that this was well done and well presented. I'm also impressed that it has prompted a conversation, and a strong desire for further information.

Small constructive feedback: 'mentally ill people' should be changed to person first language. People aren't their illness(es). Also, Gender Identity Disorder should be taken off, as it will not be in the DSM-V, nor should it be.

I'm also extremely impressed by how many views this has had. We all know someone, or are that one

[hopefulmodel]

This is a wonderful video and it should be shown all over

[mothman300]

What an informative 10 minute video of something I could have read in 2 minutes or less.

[london2z]

@transduality There are alternatives to the prescription drugs. My sister was cured of her mental illness with the aid of a naturopathic physician I found. But because she had already been on the drugs for ten years, the natural therapies, ( herbal hormones, other herbs and vitamins), had to be combined with the hard drugs. The side-effects disappeared, and she is still doing great. But for mental disabilities not caused by physical abormalities, these remedies may be ineffective.

[ANarrowBridge]

I live with the effects of mental illness and think you did a lovely job. While I agree with parts of many of the comments below, I think we can all add to the discussion. Sometimes I feel like owning the "label" as a means of self-empowerment, sometimes I want to cast it aside and not have any labels at all: I am a person. I change how I feel. Nonetheless, I live with this condition [these conditions, I should say] just as much as I live with epilepsy. Well done.

[TheLegendaryGeoff]

You stupid ass! If you seriously have hope for humanity and think people who single out others for being screwed in the head are simply gonna disappear, you must have a 2nd scrotum in the place of your brain!

[CCSMama31]

@alice69ification what is the name of your facebook cause? I would love to support it!

[transduality]

I would caution against advocating that every extreme mental state a person experiences, should become a disease diagnosis, also because that kind of stigma on one's medical record could come back to haunt them, in a world where discrimination is real & our private records are in real danger of becoming someone else's comodity or a means for them to control us.

[transduality]

Consider also Big Pharma & the Big corporate medical insurance establishment & Co. who seeks to profit as much as possible by turning every single problem or adversity a human being experiences into a disease that can be 'cured' by the administration of some toxic experimental 'medicine'.

[transduality]

A new vocabulary is needed, one that instead of stigmatizing someone from being different from the norm, has the ability to empower, & that helps overcome limitations with positive language. The energy would be better focused on enabling these folk to live their lives as fully as possible, by working to change prejudicial attitudes in general, rather than complain of not being properly labeled as sick by society.

[transduality]

I liked the video for bringing attention to the issues presented & intolerance, but if I may offer some constructive criticism, I would have to point out that the principal way in which society stigmatizes people who are faced with mental differences & challenges is first by the depreciative use of words such as illness, disease, disorder, dysfunction, disability, deficit, & other that imply deficiency or a lack of normalcy.