It
happened again. I had a conversation a number of months ago and I am still
reviewing it my head. This is how my brain works; I write articles and stories
in my head like some people experience a song playing over and over again. I
know there is nothing to be done other than to write it down and spit it out.
Hang on to your hats you might not like what I have to say.
On
May 8th I was a guest of WOTCH Community Mental Health at the 2012
Breakfast of Champions here in London. This celebration recognizes individuals
who have tirelessly and successfully worked in the field of Mental Health Care.
Michael Landsberg of TSN was the guest speaker; he is a consumer survivor,
which means he is a working individual who admits he has a mental illness. As
he was presenting to the audience he used the familiar phase, “They have stigma
and I need to bust through it.” The gentleman who was sitting next to me
whispered a response to this statement, “I hate it when they use that term
stigma. It is prejudice.” There it was, the remark that I have grappled with
since.
My
first course of action was to connect with this provocative man via Twitter to
see what he was really trying to say. It was as I heard, he does not see stigma
as stigma but as prejudice. Fine. Next I turned to the dictionary, which was
maybe where I should have started from. Stigma is a mark of disgrace, a stain
or reproach on one’s reputation. Prejudice is an opinion formed without taking
time and care to judge fairly. Stigma is an internal action; as is disgrace, so
can only be realized through the individual who has a mental illness. Prejudice
is the external label attached to an individual who has a mental illness, without
time to consider first (maybe to save time or brain cells).
I
can now clearly see that we as mental health advocates are interchanging the
two. I am now wondering are we trying to be polite? Do we do this because of
political correctness? I know I did it
out of pure ignorance. But I can no more. I must call a spade a spade and I
will no longer view prejudice as stigma.
I,
as a consumer survivor can still harbor stigma about me, but if I turn my way
of thinking onto another mental health consumer, I am prejudiced. This means if
I think someone who has suffered through a serious mental illness can not work
as well as someone who has not, then I am prejudice. If I think that I need to
decide for a mental health consumer how their recovery should look than I am
prejudice. Likewise, if I think that I will never work again because I have a
serious mental illness than I am dealing with stigma. And if I decide that my
recovery can go no further than where it is, it is stigma that is my barrier.
I
have been enlightened; stigma is not the only barrier prejudice is the
greatest. From this point on I will draw the line. I suspect that until someone
realizes they are prejudice they can do nothing to change. So I invite you to
take a long look at yourself. Are you prejudiced?
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