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Mental Health Stigma Must End — Now And Forever
Particularly in the workplace
Today I want to talk about mental health stigma. In addition to educating others about mental health, a key goal for my blog was breaking the stigma. Too many people still act like mental health is a sign of weakness, that it’s less serious than a physical illness, and that it’s somehow shameful to talk about. Because I’ve had so many mental health issues throughout my life, I am very open about discussing them. I feel no shame, and I have no more fear about discussing mental problems than I would physical ones.
Mental Health Stigma At Work
That’s why I was very sad recently when I discussed mental health and the workplace with someone I know very well. We’ll call her Jean. Jean has also had mental health challenges and an upbringing as difficult as mine was. That’s why I was so surprised when she said that she did feel uncomfortable talking about mental health at work. She has spoken about it, but only with colleagues with whom she had built a relationship.
Jean stated categorically that talking about mental health is very different to talking about physical problems. She was reluctant to talk about it to people she didn’t trust because she felt it was something deeply personal, something that was about her as a person…
