Monday, June 3, 2013

Stigma crossing national and cultural boundaries...



The more I pay attention, the more I ‘get’ that stigma is about basic respect.  What does every human being want?  Dignity.  Hope.  Love.  Safety.  And this is true all over the world.  Of course, we see that there are people all over the world who don’t live having the basics.  Human beings can be cruel to other human beings.  I can also tell you that the mentally ill don’t have those basics.  All over the world.  From the most ‘developed’ of countries to those struggling with economic development.  I have to admit, I was very touched by the title of this article.  “We must become our brothers’ keepers again.”  I want to clarify that I am not talking about economics.  Or at least not totally. 

Have we ever been our brothers’ keepers?  I don’t know.  But the world doesn’t seem to operate in kindness.  What do we see in the way that people talk about mental illness?  How do people react to mental illness?  We are looking at that right now in the United States because of fear.  We are blaming the mentally ill for violence and death in the aftermath of the deaths of 27 human beings.  Many of them children.  So, it took a horrific incident to even encourage us to examine the topic.  But the discussion is very controlled by stigma and ignorance about the ramifications of mental illness.  People are convinced that the problem of violence in this country is due to the mentally ill.  Instead of looking at the statistical reality, which is that mental illness isn’t necessarily the primary factor in the majority of gun deaths in this country. Then we have a politician who wants to use a history of mental illness to defeat an opponent. In 2013.  I am a little shocked by that.  The fact that we are talking is wonderful.  But we do need to be honest about the tone of the discussion.  What do you think? 

This article made me very aware that similar things impact the mentally ill across cultural boundaries and nations.  And that was a valuable insight.  I ‘get’ that what we all need is basic to our humanity.  And depriving others of those basics is a decision we all make every single day…in the way we think about and talk to other human beings.  Because we really do betray our attitudes through our words and behaviors.   
   
Here is the link to the article:  http://bit.ly/18JkN0H

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