There’s no easy way to say this. Mental health is, unfortunately, associated with stigma and misinformation. Why? Well, mental illnesses often “invisible” compared to physical illnesses. Many symptoms of mental illness are only noticeable to the sufferer. Furthermore, much of mental health requires a certain amount of empathy for strangers and trust that people are telling the truth about what they’re thinking and feeling, and sadly that isn’t the case nearly as often as it should be. Thankfully we can clearly see mental health visibility increasing in media, and hopefully over time we’ll see some of these myths fade away.
But, we should also check some common myths about mental health. I mean, why should we believe FAKE things?
MYTH#1:Mentally-ill people are VIOLENT
This one has been debunked time and time again, but it persists as a myth for countless reasons. The most obvious may be portrayals in the media, as well as the urge for us to believe someone wouldn’t commit certain crimes unless they have a mental illness or are “crazy”. The reality is far more complicated. Actually, the truth is that perfectly sane people are capable of terrible things. Furthermore, mental illness is actually more likely to make someone a victim than a perpetrator.
MYTH#2: “happy pills”
The perspective of medications as “happy pills” is unfortunately built upon mental illness erasure. The approach is that people with mental illnesses are upset emotionally instead of actually mentally ill, and depend upon happy pills to function.
There’s also a stigma against mental health medications because they’re viewed as harmful, which is an oversimplification at best. Different medications affect everyone differently, and sometimes people will have to try multiple different drugs before finding one that works. Just like all other medications, psychiatric medications come with side-effects, sometimes to the point that they may be more harmful than helpful. But that’s per-person, per-prescription, and if someone is struggling enough to see a doctor, a couple trials of different medications on the way to finding something that works is an even trade.
MYTH#3:MENTAL ILLNESS= weakness
This is perhaps the most unfortunate myth of all. It’s effectively a belief that people with a certain type of illness are inferior. If you said the same thing about someone with a physical illness you’d probably receive a lot of backlash. You could say that it’s because you can see the difference in someone when they’re physically sick and not mentally sick, but even that doesn’t always apply- the problem is mental illness can look like laziness, apathy or other perceived character flaws, but is actually someone being pinned down by their psychological state.
MYTH#4: Children can’t have mental illnesses
Not only can children have mental illnesses, but many adults struggling with mental illness lament not being able to treat it properly as a child.
In fact, the mental illnesses children can have include ADHD, ASD, mood disorders and even PTSD. Given their age, not treating these disorders can rob a child of their potential and cause them problems in adulthood if they’re left to figure it out for themselves.
MYTH#5:Mental illness can’t be prevented
This isn’t just false, it also hides some very serious problems. It can be prevented. Wait… let’s back peddle! It SHOULD be prevented!!!!
Mental illness is often caused by genetics, but mental illnesses caused by life experience are extremely common- and often preventable. This can run the gamut from birth conditions to childhood quality of life to economic factors. People who are underprivileged face a greater risk of developing mental illness. Abuse in childhood- or otherwise- also makes someone much more likely to develop a mental illness as a response. Many political issues come attached with indirect psychological consequences, and despite being incredibly important, these factors are often the first to go unnoticed.
MYTH#6:Mental illness are rare
Check out this Harvard News article that opens by saying mental illness is as common as a cold. This myth may come from the misunderstanding of mental illness as a more permanent thing, and sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s just difficult to treat. But people have brief battles with mental illness all the time as a result of life circumstances- developing depression after something like experiencing loss is normal, as well as treatable.
MYTH#7:Talking to someone about suicide can make it WORSE!
This one, honestly, was new to me. It can also be seen as an example of the difficulty in talking about suicide- it isn’t all stigma after all. There have been times in the past where I’ve wanted to discuss it with a friend and found it to be impossible, because there was no way to discuss it calmly with someone that hadn’t faced the exact same problem.
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Currently, I am a student of Fatima Jinnah Women University. With a burning passion for psychology, words, and dreams, I decided to abandon medical studies for humanities. These days, when I’m not listening to ballads, watching movies, or sitting down with a good novel, I am rigorously studying Hangul (Korean language) to satisfy my obsession for BTS and K dramas. I’m a thinking introvert and INFJ personality. Therefore, I like ‘me time’. My articles typically resonate with psychological well-being advice.