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Paul Ruggiero
Prof. Fernley
English 1010
12/10/15
How to Reduce or end the stigma on Mental Illness?
When I was 11, I was diagnosed with Clinical depression, and General Anxiety
disorder. Going through that as a kid I didnt want anyone to know. I wanted to just
forget about it, and not realize that it was there, only if it was that easy. I was
mostly scared about what others would think about me, and how they would judge
me. Actually Im still terrified to this day of what people with judge me as. Many of
us suffering with mental illnesses know exactly what I am talking about. In all reality
looking at my situation from the side, I am only part of the problem. We suffering
from mental illness are afraid of how we will be perceived in the publics eye, were
scared to be labeled as different or weird and in actuality that is what we would
be branded as. No longer just a person in society, we are the outcasts. Crying
because we cant control our emotions, or being so overwhelmed all we do is lay in
bed for hours on end. This is what is called stigma, or in actual terms a mark of
disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person. How do we
put an end to it? Or reduce it down so it is almost a non-factor?
Mental illness will affect 1 out of 4 people in the United States. In a number
aspect, that is 61,000,000 people living with these various illnesses right now. With
people suffering from these illnesses, some of them are like myself; we are terrified
of telling others because we think they wont understand. Us as a nation arent very

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caring when it comes to others thoughts or feelings. We are very uneducated when
it comes down to mental health issues. If someone talks to themselves, likes to be
alone, or hears voices. Theyre crazy. Having a mental disorder is definitely out of
the question, actually in order for it to be a question we have to get past the fact
that hes just crazy and most Americans today cant seem to do that. Some will
argue that there are people fighting against these labeling of the mentally ill. Yes,
thats true. There are people out there like NAMI, National Alliance on Mental Illness,
and the APA, American Psychology Association. Groups like these do exist and are
willing to help anyone, but with 61 million people suffering from mental illness there
has to be a bigger outcry than that.
Mental illness Awareness Week which is on the first week of October in the
United States, and a Mental Illness Awareness Month that is in May. These are a
good step in the right direction to get the public to understand more, but in
comparison to other countries we seem to be falling flat. England only has an
Mental Illness Awareness Month, and every year they see anywhere from 5-7%
increase on understanding mental illness. While the United States only averages 23% increase. Dont get me wrong, and increase is always a good thing, but we have
to have separate occasions for it, while England has one and see anywhere to 3-5%
better growth than we do. England has a wonderful public message, which they
seem to get out easier than the United States. I had no clue that we even had
Awareness anything for mental illness before I looked into it. We need to publicize
mental illness more. We need to make it known to our country about what is going
on. Several of you reading this will be wonder of affective is just understanding
mental illness. Knowing is only half the battle, but that is better than nobody
understanding.

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With a bigger public sharing and more publicity, we will need help from the
government. Right now, Mental illness is still regarded as Mental Health. Mental
illness can fit into mental health, but mental health can range anywhere from
working out to meditating. While the mentally ill can still do these things, how does
that affect them in anyway? That isnt going to give them medication, its not
helping them with therapy. Shoving money into mental health, is basically putting a
dollar into a vending machine. Sometimes you just need an extra boost of sugar,
and sometimes it will steal your dollar. The people that really need funding are
going untreated because, mental illness is a problem, but its labeled under mental
health so nothing really goes to them. Barack Obama while in his presidency has
tried to make big moves for mental illness. He wants us to put money towards
mental illness not mental health. He also wants the 4% of dangerous people
suffering with mental illness to go through court ordered treatment. While these
could help tremendously, they can only go so far. We need to see more programs
dedicated to public speaking and to teaching the youth about these issues. We need
the future of our country to not judge people on the way that they are, but accept
them for being them. If we set aside more funding, and had a public advocator we
could see mass improvement on these issues.
Brooke Shields is an actress and has been very public about her battle with
depression, and postpartum depression is an advocator that we need help fight this
battle to end the judgement on mental illness. With having a public advocator will
greatly help spread the awareness of mental illness, not only will it give a good role
model for the younger generations to follow and look up too, but it will have an
impact on the older ones as well. Mostly every American is inspired by a person with

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money or power. If we had a professional athlete, Actor/actresses, or members of
our government.
The World Health Organization better known as the WHO made up a
pyramid of what they believe is the best way to reduce stigma on mental illness.
First they want to change the mental illness layout, instead of having mental
hospitals they suggest more of a community. This will bring people with different
backgrounds into the same area to see and understand what they are going
through. Since the first step into ending the stigma is with the people that are
suffering from the illnesses. We need to embrace that we have an illness, and be
willing to share it to the public instead of having kept hiding like a dragon. They all
suggest that in every hospital everyone there has a general understanding of
mental illness. Either they are trained properly, or they are required to take more
psychology classes while going to school in order to get there proper degree. With
these ideas, we will have to pay a pretty penny. Four dollars for the upper class, and
two dollars for the middle and lower class. This would be over a tenure plan and the
dollar amounts would slowly trickle down to about fifteen cents a person. Those are
prices I am willing to pay, and willing to stand by.
When you think of someone having an illness, you think its life threatening
and its untreatable. Mental illness can be life threatening but it is treatable. Having
the word illness linked to mental is basically saying that these people are crazy, and
cant be fixed. If we just treated it like it actually was instead of throwing it into a
huge category would help with the reduction of judgement towards mental illness.
We need to start saying it like it is, I have a chemical imbalance in my brain, a brain
disorder, or even a brain attack. We need to bring this to attention to a bigger
company like NAMI. They are the United States leaders in mental illness advocacy

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and if they understood the impact that just the world illness has on one another
than we could change it for the better.
Say you are diabetic, and you havent eaten all day. At the end of the day,
you feel dizzy and faint, that is you going into diabetic shock. Is it your fault that a
disease made that happens to you? No its not, but if youre so depressed that you
take your own life, its suddenly all your fault. The chemical imbalance in your brain
does not play apart in mental illness to the majority of the public. If youre mental
unstable its your fault, because you cant hold yourself together. As wonderful as
modern medicine is it has also created these false pretenses. If its not a real
disease than you can overcome it. Mental illness is as much as a disease as cancer,
or diabetes and we as a community and a country need to understand that. If we
treat it like an actual disease that would help tremendously with reducing the
stigma.
So who cares? Well if 61 million people arent enough reasons to care than I
can put that into a smaller percentage. Our English class has twenty-four kids
enrolled into it, six of those kids are suffering from mental illness; and out of those
six, one of them fall under the category of psychosis. That one is hearing voices,
having severe depression, and cant sleep because he/she is afraid someone is
going to hurt him. Helping end the judgement that surrounds mental illness will help
everyone around. Mental illness is as real as cancer, or liver failure. If you are
suffering from any mental disorder, dont be scared to stand up for yourself, or
stand up for someone who cant. Humanity is the only way we can put an end to
these sorts of pretenses. Human nature has also sorted out the weak, and if just
continue to watch and let nothing happen, than the mentally ill will just be a thing of
the past. Everyone will be to terrified to say they are suffering because of the

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stigma, and if we are okay with living in a world where it isnt okay to be you; than
whats the point of living?

Works Cited

Cummings, Janet R. "Addressing Public Stigma and Disparities Among Persons

With Mental Illness: The Role of Federal Policy." Addressing Public Stigma and
Disparities Among Persons With Mental Illness: The Role of Federal Policy. Am

J Public Health, 1 May 2013. Web. 27 Dec. 2013.

Lee, Nancy C. "Mental Health." Americans with Disabilities Act and Mental

Illness. Federal Government, 29 Mar. 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

Miessler, Daniel. "The Growing Shamefulness of Ignoring the Mental Health

Crisis." Danielmiesslercom. N.p., 29 Mar. 2015. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

"Mental Health Awareness Month." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Apr.
2015. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

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"Problem." MENTAL ILLNESS POLICY ORG. HOME PAGE. Mental Illness Policy

Org., Feb. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

"Unite For Sight." Improving Mental Health Care. Psychiatry and Clinical

Neurosciences, 2 July 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

"9 Ways to Fight Mental Health Stigma." NAMI: National Alliance on Mental
Illness | 9 Ways to Fight Mental Health Stigma. N.p., 9 Oct. 2015. Web. 12
Dec. 2015.

1. The feedback I received was a little cupcakey. I wanted people to tell me

what they like and didnt like, not just doing it because there is a grade
associated with it. I would really like it if people were a little more to the
point. I revised it a lot, not because of the peer reviews but because I had
it totally wrong. I was doing the paper 100% wrong, so all of it go revised.
2. I think my organization that I was writing to would be NAMI, I directly
sourced them, and made a lot of references to them as well. I think I have
good ideas and that they should listen!
3. I think I met the criteria of this paper pretty well, I citied my sources, 5
pages, had my intro, conclusion, and I had the naysayers in there as well.
All in all I think this is one of the better papers I have written and I think
my grade will reflect it.