In a recent Reddit “Ask Me Anything” CREST.BD member and world-renowned stigma expert Dr. Stephen Hinshaw asked this question: Does mental illness represent the last great frontier we face for human rights? Behind this question is an implicit understanding that many — if not most — people who experience mental health challenges will also experience significant stigma resulting from misconceptions about mental illness.

Mental illness stigma creates a disturbing and damaging reality. Canadian research tells us that over a quarter of people who’ve been in treatment for mental illness over the past 12 months have experienced prejudice or discrimination. Even more troubling is the data showing that many people don’t access (or stick with) the treatments that could help them recover because of stigma. Scientific studies such as these can make life for people with mental illnesses seem bleak. But there are also rays of hope, and some of the strongest of these are coming from social activist initiatives such as the Vancouver Me Too event series.

CREST.BD team members Victoria Maxwell, Erin Michalak, and Steven Barnes will be presenting at the upcoming Me Too event, further unpacking the concept that mental illness stigma occurs (and can be tackled) at three main levels:
1. Self-Stigma
2. Social Stigma
3. Structural Stigma

From Victoria: I am not what you call the “stigma” police. Don’t get me wrong: I’ll step in and speak up when needed. But I’m also not fanatically politically correct. In fact, I make jokes about being crazy. But you see, I can. I’ve actually gone crazy. Seriously. Seriously “bat-sh%#-running-down-the-street-naked” kind of crazy. And that, my friends, gives me street cred. Sorry I couldn’t resist. At the upcoming Me Too conversations I’ll be reading excerpts from my plays to illustrate these types of stigma: Self, social, and structural. You’ll hear, among other things, my thoughts on terms like nuts, crazy, basket case, wacko, psycho, gringo (oh, wait that comes from another set of insults). I’ll use humor, irreverence, and a pinch of pathos to make it comfortable to ask uncomfortable questions about unnerving subjects. Because the only thing worse than an awkward conversation is no conversation at all.

From Steven: Although I consider myself to be living well with a mental illness, that doesn’t mean I never struggle. For example, I still deal with the ebb-and-flow of negative self-talk — though it is certainly a smoother process than it once was. I believe it has become more manageable, in some ways, by my coming to understand both what it is and where it comes from. I have come to understand that much of the negative self-talk I have is the result of self-stigma that has developed, in part, as a result of my experiencing (or witnessing) both social and structural stigma. During Me Too I’ll be describing some of my personal struggles with self-stigma and a few strategies I’ve found useful for diminishing it.

From Erin: During Me Too I’ll be diving deeper into the topic of social stigma. As a researcher, I won’t be able to help myself from peppering my talk with some science. I’ll speak to the potential impact of language on the way we think, feel, and behave. I’ll also lightly describe the results of the anti-stigma performance we produced with Victoria Maxwell called “That’s Just Crazy Talk” on stigmatizing attitudes toward people with bipolar disorder. And as someone who cares about empowering action, I’ll also introduce some concrete steps we can take collectively to surmount this last, great frontier of human rights.

Me Too is sponsored by the Andy Szocs Foundation, the Kelty Patrick Dennehy Foundation, VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation, and Vancouver Coastal Health. To learn more about these events, click here. To read about some research CREST.BD does on stigma, take a look over here.

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