The World in Chris' Mental utopia

NotQuiteSane02

I’m taking a look at the landscape. I can see forests and hills, lots of houses and a mountain range. It’s the Alps. I’m sat next to an exotic plant on the balcony, and my mind starts to wander back in time.

Where there were more forests, wild forests, and no houses, but yes, the Alps. Deer, bears, wolves and many more were known to wander along secret paths. I wouldn’t sit on that balcony.

I don’t know where I’d be. I might not even be here because I’m not supposed to be there at that time.

This is an old clip on stigma and stereotypes. I still like it and I’m happy to share it with you!

At the moment, I’m at a seminar somewhere in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. In English, it’s called “Coming Out Proud”. It’s all about understanding and combatting stigma, and feeling empowered. But I really don’t want to go through the material of that seminar with you. But I’d like to flag up a couple of things that are really important to me.

Stigma makes us feel bad – whether it’s the stigma we’re imposed by others or, in my opinion, the more dangerous kind we impose on ourselves. The stigma can be really ingrained, as I’ve seen for myself. Stigma from a group directed against any other group – in this case, the mentally ill – may lead to mobbing and further discrimination of members of that group. I also think it’s fair to say that being stigmatised doesn’t make people immune to stigmatising other groups. For example, people with mental health issues might still discriminate against foreigners, just like other parts of society. Did you notice anything like that?

Photo credit: Melanie Wasser via Unsplash

On my recovery journey, I’ve learned that if I don’t want to be baffled by stigma any longer, I need to deal with the issues around my self-inflicted stigma. That’s a long-haul project! Empowerment seems like the right tool for the job. I think it’s really important to follow your own path. So there’s a chance my self-esteem is increasing because things I choose to do are going well.

Maybe of interest: https://stigmafreesociety.com/pledge/

It’s a work in progress, and as with any recovery journey, there’ll be setbacks along the way. So, in a few days, I’ll be attending the last few hours of that seminar. I’m glad I joined in there because it made me more aware of these hot issues on mental health.

NotQuiteSane02