Mental Health: How Students Today are Working to Change a Stigma

 

Mental Health is a special category within health, but this was not the case until rather recently. Thanks to many developments in not only the field of psychology, but also in the realm of science, most people across the world, and especially students, are now focusing on mental health and giving it the proper attention and concern that it deserves.

 

No Longer a Soft Science

Sadly it took many centuries for philosophers to penetrate the overall acceptance of mental health as a verifiable science meriting research and funding. Thanks to many famous scientists, like Sigmund Freud, most students today recognize the importance of tracking up on their own and other’s mental health. It is being taught more in schools and more people are able to be educated on the different types.


The Stigma is Fading

Students fight hard against an unfair stigma that still lingers in not only the academic world, but also in the minds of powerful members of the media. For some reason, many continue to discount the needs for all humans, not just students, to focus on their mental health in order to prevent physical and mental diseases, but also to combat stress and to increase productivity, happiness, and brain functioning.

More students are getting involved in the media and trying to raise awareness about common and even lesser known mental illnesses. Stigmas surrounding schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder are among just a few that have a certain stigma in popular media. Students are also concerned about the portrayal of depression in our culture. Many see labels like lazy and just sad attached to the disease, when in reality it can be far more crippling than a case of the blues. The more education about these subjects are helping to relieve the popular ideas about them.

 

Efforts Within the Campus

There have been numerous movements championing mental health awareness, and the removal of the stigma that plagues it. One such movement is a men’s mental health awareness event called Movember which occurs each November. At this time, men grow mustaches to silently show their solidarity and recognition of how mental illness can affect men.

 

Silent Marches

Another popular movement on European and American campuses is the silent march, in which advocates mental health and those who have lost loved ones to mental health related illnesses and deaths. Students silently march with peaceful signs that declare their dedication to removing the stigma and increasing the awareness of mental health. This movement has encouraged advocates to dig deeper into the trenches of mental health causes, including Mindset Consulting Group which offers legal recidivism assessments, and other groups.

 

Until There is a Cure

We don’t know how or when society will solve mental illness, but we do know that important changes are on the horizon, and these changes are necessary for the overall development and success of humanity as a whole. The first and most necessary obstacle to overcome is combatting the unfair stigma against mental health, especially at the University.

 

“Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most her time hiking, biking and gardening. For more information about legal recidivism assessment or Mindset Consulting Group, contact Brooke via Twitter @BrookeChaplan.”

 

Image source:Flikr Creative Commons www.ruffrootcreative.com

 

Categories: Mental Health, stigma, students

Why Women Need to Start Talking More About HPV

Although most will never know it, four out of five women are likely to be infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) at some point in their lives. Using a condom doesn’t always protect your wellbeing against HPV, which is a major concern – not just to your sexual health, but to your overall wellness. HPV is the cause of virtually every case of cervical cancer, and yet a woman who finds out she has an HPV infection is not likely to tell even her closest friends. But why?

 

As HPV is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) there is a certain amount of social stigma attached to it, meaning that women would rather keep schtum than get help. However, having HPV is a lot more normal than you may think, so there’s no real reason to stay silent. Plus, knowing your HPV status can help you identify your risk of cervical cancer – which is highly preventable if caught in time. Usually, the virus is harmless, with most of the 6 million new cases of HPV in the United States each year clearing up on their own. If you have HPV, it does not mean that you have had a lot of partners, although having multiple partners does increase your risk. However, unless you have been vaccinated, it’s quite likely that you will get a HPV. A study of women with just one partner found that 50% had HPV infections three years into their monogamous relationships.

 

That is not to say that having HPV means you have been unfaithful. There is a good chance that you could have contracted the virus years or even decades ago, but the HPV has been hiding out in your system before developing into changes in cervical cells. There are plenty of stories from couples who have been married for 10 or 20 years and found themselves upended by HPV. It is impossible to know when and where you have contracted the disease, so don’t jump to relationship-rattling conclusions. You don’t even need to have sex to transmit HPV; the virus can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, meaning that contact with the hands and oral sex can also spread the infection.

 

You may be worried about letting your teenagers have the HPV vaccination because it opens them up to the idea that they are about to have sex. However, getting the HPV vaccine isn’t about sex; it’s about cancer. The reason why it’s given to young people is to ensure they are vaccinated well in advance of their first sexual encounter, which, for some kids, can be age 13. Moreover, the body’s antibody responses are highest between the ages of nine and 15, which means the vaccine is at its most effective during that window. There are four HPV types that are responsible for 70% of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts, and the current vaccines, which are recommended for young girls and boys, protect against all of them.

 

We cannot ignore HPV, in spite of the stigma attached. If more people were to turn to the vaccination, we might soon speak about the virus in the same way we do about polio or smallpox. However, letting HPV reign in our lives can be life-threatening. While most infections go away without any treatment, some infections with specific types of HPV can persist and develop into cervical cancer over years or even decades. Therefore, there are many good reasons why you need to talk about HPV – and schedule your annual OB/GYN exam if you haven’t done so yet.

Categories: cancer, cervical, cervical cancer, HPV, nbsp, stigma, stigma attached, Vaccine, Virus, Women

Erotic Awards Aim to Remove Sex Stigma for Disabled People

Sexual health is important to your wellbeing, no matter who you are. More and more attention is being turned towards the sexual needs of disabled people, but the true pioneer that celebrates sexuality for all people are the Erotic Awards.

 

The Erotic Awards take place every year and thrust the sexual needs of disabled people into the spotlight. Thanks to pioneering sex campaigner Tuppy Owens, the annual awards ceremony and post-ceremony kink party Night Of The Senses has been going for 25 years, raising money for Outsiders – a charity that helps disabled people find sexual partners. Last year’s film The Sessions explored that taboo of sex and disability, telling the story of a paralysed man who loses his virginity to a ‘sexual surrogate’. Then you have the Channel 4 documentary Can Have Sex Will Have Sex, which details the sex lives of four disabled people, including one who has sex with an escort hired by his mother.

 

Such programmes and films are important because they tell us something Owens has been asserting for decades: disabled people have the same basic human desire for sexual intimacy. This is why Owens set up the awards: to recognise and celebrate sex-positive artists, campaigners, academics and sex educators. Last year, finalists included Tits And Sass – a group blog run by sex workers, including strippers, porn performers and prostitutes – and Sue Newsome, who developed a multi-sensory massage for a man paralysed from the waist down. However, the evening is about more than handing out trophies. Once the winners have accepted their awards (known as the Golden Flying Penis), it’s time for various tents, with names such as The Grope Box and The Petting Zoo, to open.

 

Though Owens created and has led the event for almost a quarter of a century, last year she stepped down as head honcho and instead took up her role as disability steward. The 69-year-old pioneer is retiring from the event to focus on her own research and writing. Instead, the mantle of last year’s event was passed onto award-winning producer Lianne Coop, 36, and photographer Grace Gelder, 29, who runs Juicy Productions. A seemingly odd choice compared to the experience in event-planning and status of their predecessor, but, as ever, there is a method to Owens’s madness: they are enthusiastic, bright and, most importantly, they are young.

 

Owens comments, ‘When it started 25 years ago, all my friends came along to support me. They still come along, of course, but they are also nearly in their seventies. It’s time for a new generation of people to hear about the event, so we need young people to run it.’ Last year, Owens’ wish came true when the crowd turned out to be a youthful mix of Gelder and Coop’s friends and those who had benefited from the word-of-mouth campaign. Unfortunately, however, the number of disabled guests in attendance at the event is still relatively low.

 

Even though carers are free to attend and the venue has wheelchair accessibility, Gelder estimates that just 10% of the crowd were disabled at last year’s event. The photographer, who met Owens while researching a documentary on sex and disability, enthuses, ‘Obviously we want more to join in. There needs to be a place where disabled people can come and enjoy themselves and their sexuality.’ Hopefully, this wish will come to light at the 2014 Erotic Awards, for which Gelder and Coop hope a famous name will help promote. Gelder notes, ‘Someone such as Sam Roddick [founder of erotic emporium Coco de Mer] would change everything for us.’

Categories: disabled, Disabled People, Erotic Awards, event, owens, people, stigma, year

How Does Abuse From Your Partner Affect Family Wellness?

If your wellness is under threat from physical or sexual abuse, you’re not alone. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 35% of women worldwide have been victims of physical or sexual abuse from an intimate partner, which can further impact their mental wellbeing.

 

In a new publication focused on violence against women and the resulting health effects, WHO reported that the physical trauma of domestic violence isn’t the only wellness concern facing 35% of the world’s women, but it can also cause a wide range of psychological traumas. If your partner is physically or sexually abusive, you can experience a sense of hopelessness which feeds into substance abuse issues, and stress which can even lead to failed immunity and organ function. Family wellness may also be affected by your partner’s abuse – even if he never touches your children – as the health of children birthed by mothers, who are victims, is often also likely to be impacted.

 

WHO outlined the psychological issues related to domestic violence; rooted in stressful home environments in which you feel like you have no control over the painful things you endure each day from someone ‘close’ to you. These are:

 

• Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)


• Anxiety


• Depression


• Eating disorders


• Suicidal tendencies

 

The latter two issues often arise as a coping mechanism if you feel especially depressed, helpless, and anxious about your situation. According to AfterSilence.org, a support website for women who have suffered sexual violence, about 30 to 40% of eating disorder patients are survivors of sexual trauma. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders adds that 50% of people with eating disorders meet the criteria for depression.

 

However, mood disorders created by domestic abuse, albeit preventable, often go unnoticed as they are often masked in substance use and abuse. In Canada, a 2004 study found that 31% of those who suffered a mood disorder like depression were also alcohol-dependent. WHO reports that, as a woman experiencing domestic violence, you are 2.3 times more likely to develop an alcohol abuse issue and 2.6 times more likely to be depressed or suffer anxiety. WHO argues that we need to remove the stigma associated with the poor health that results from intimate partner violence.

Categories: domestic abuse, health impact, stigma

Labelling, Stigma and Treatments: The Impact of the DSM

The Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has generated a lot of controversy for such a seemingly dull book. However, as the debate seems to rage between psychologists and psychiatrists, who are experts on mental wellness, is there any reason for us regular folk to bother about the furore over what constitutes a mental health “condition”? For Mary O’Hara, a social affairs writer and Alistair Cooke Fulbright Scholar 2009/2010, the simple answer is yes.

According to O’Hara, ‘For a start, esoteric debates about what mental illness is, and whether it is a result of biological or cultural triggers, are unlikely to be at the top of most people’s “pay attention” list. However, for people with a mental health diagnosis, the DSM and its consequences are far from obscure. It has, for decades, been influential and regarded as the bible for doctors who deliver psychiatric diagnoses.’

Not only does the DSM manual influence what clinical treatment you receive to improve your mental wellness – and, believe me, its influence is huge – the DSM also an impact on how you are labelled, or stigmatised, by wider society for your mental health condition. Until 1973, for instance, homosexuality was deemed a treatable mental illness! Yet while the DSM has eliminated such diagnoses now, some critics believe that as the manual has expanded, and increasingly over-medicalised normal behavioural responses such as after a tragedy or bereavement.

O’Hara explains, ‘As 70% of the experts serving on the committees that decided which conditions are in or out of DSM-5 have links to pharmaceutical companies, it is hardly surprising that scepticism abounds. With each edition of the DSM, new conditions are added, with some attracting opprobrium. Among those added in DSM-5 is “hoarding disorder”, defined as “persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of actual value”. If new and extra conditions are becoming accepted so readily within psychiatric circles, shouldn’t we at the very least explore this trend?’

She adds, ‘When it comes to mental health, the diagnostic labels matters far beyond their clinical applications. A diagnosis all too quickly becomes a label by which an individual is defined and judged, which in turn becomes a catalyst for stigma and discrimination. There is evidence from the campaign, Time to Change, and others, that, even while there are some signs of a reduction, stigma and discrimination around mental illness are devilishly entrenched – with sometimes devastating consequences for those on the receiving end.’

Categories: DSM, mental illness, stigma

What Everyone Should Know About Mental Health Problems

Although as a nation we are getting better about discussing our wellness and sharing difficult health problems, emotional/mental health problems are still something of a taboo. This is unfortunate, as it has been proved that speaking out about mental health can be hugely beneficial for the wellbeing of those suffering from any kind of mental health problem.

 

The charity Rethink has long tried to encourage people to speak out about mental health, in order to tackle the prejudice that is, sadly, still attached to the whole category of mental health. This works because those who feel a prejudice only look at people as a category, but if people speak out about their mental health problems they are forced to consider them as individuals, and fellow human beings.

 

Unfortunately, it can be a bit of a catch-22 situation, as those who do speak out can be subject to discrimination, so often people keep their mental health problems to themselves in order to avoid being subject to this discrimination. For some people, the process of coming out as someone with a mental health problem can have effects on the job that they do for a living. Professionals feel that their judgement and capability may be questioned, and those in positions of authority fear that they will lose the respect that people have for them.

 

People reveal that from their own experience, talking about their diagnosis with those who are not currently suffering from mental health problems can be a very awkward situation. People feel uncomfortable with the subject and so simply do not know what to say. This leads to people closing off, which then perpetuates this situation, and leads to many people not receiving the diagnoses they require, as they feel ashamed or do not understand what they are suffering from.

Categories: health, mental, stigma

Depression Discussion: Website Gives Workers Tools to Talk

On the pages of a new on-line portal aimed at raising awareness about mental health and wellness in the workplace, a friendly looking, tie-wearing, big brown bear greets you from the depths of a scenic forest. The front page of RightDirectionforme.com reads, ‘When you’re depressed at work, it can feel like you’re lost in the woods alone. But there’s help, and you can find your way out.’

This is the message from the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, which is an arm of the American Psychiatric Foundation that has joined with Employers Health to launch Right Direction. The website has been designed to educate employers and employees alike about depression, in order to reduce stigma and increase the chances of people asking for help. According to Marcas Miles of Employers Health, who oversees programmes and community outreach for the non-profit coalition of health care providers, ‘In my experience, depression has been on the radar, but not a topic that employers typically have wanted to address head-on.’

Mile explained that the Right Direction initiative was born because while employers are aware of how depression can affect an employee’s wellbeing, they don’t necessarily have a direction to start the conversation. However, research indicates that we need to address the issue of depression in the work place, as mental illness short-term disability claims are growing by 10% annually and mental disorders were involved in more than 9% of long-term disability claims in 2012.

Not only does depression harm the employees’ wellbeing, but corporate wellness can suffer also. Depression is a leading cause of lost productivity in the United States with an annual cost of $44 billion to employers. Clare Miller, director of the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, noted that work stress can further complicate depression. She said, ‘Someone with clinical depression may be especially vulnerable to highly stressful situations, especially if their depression is not adequately managed.’

Robert Leahy, PhD, the director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy and author of Beat the Blues Before They Beat You: How to Overcome Depression, commented, ‘There has been a significant rise in disability claims in the last two years, some of them related to psychiatric problems. I have seen a dramatic increase in generalised anxiety, marked by excessive worry, focused on the possibility of losing their job.’ He added, ‘There are increasing demands for productivity to increase profits, while support staff has shrunk. Moreover, people often report feeling stuck in a no-win, glass-ceiling job, but they fear being out in the market place in such difficult times. As a result they feel trapped and helpless.’

Categories: discussion, stigma, workplace stress

Intellectually Disabled Woman First to Give Birth in Malta

When a person’s wellbeing is affected by an intellectual disability, issues concerning their sexual health and wellness can cause confusion and even fear. With Malta receiving their first local report of a woman with intellectual disability becoming a mother, perhaps it’s time to address the misconception that people with intellectual disability are often perceived as asexual by society.

More and more, the stigma of asexuality has been challenged. Developed countries are working on strategies that empower people with disability to live an equally fulfilling life in which they have the same opportunities as anybody else, including a healthy sex life and the chance to become a parent. For example, the 2003 European Manifesto on Basic Standards of Health Care for People with Intellectual Disabilities notes, ‘people with intellectual disabilities have the same human rights as other citizens’, while rule nine of the United Nations Economic and Social Council states that ‘persons with disabilities must not be denied the opportunity to experience their sexuality, have sexual relationships and experience parenthood’. Article eight of the Human Rights Act also declares the ‘right to respect for private and family life’ for people with disability.

So we have established that people with intellectual disability have a human right to a sexual identity, to procreate and to have a family. Let’s look at what needs to happen so that we can protect and empower this minority group. Firstly, initial support is needed to verify if the person with intellectual disability is in a position to consent to having a sexual relationship. This support should come in the form of sex education, helping a person’s ability to make informed choices. Here in the UK, we’ve had matters of capacity to consent ingrained in our law for decades, but Malta is only just starting to cover the issue.

There also needs to be social support given to people with intellectual disability at different stages of their adult life, not letting the families of those affected shoulder the responsibility. Sadly, there have been circumstances where women with disability, and not necessarily intellectual disability, have been denied their right to motherhood, and their child has been put in the care of a foster family. This is because they did not have social or family support and could not raise a child on their own, and this is something that needs to stop.

Intellectually Disabled Woman First to Give Birth in Malta

Categories: Intellectual Disability, sexuality, stigma

Breaking The Sexual Stigma in Lebanon

There is a sexual stigma in Lebanon; there is no doubt about that. But it is very much contradicted by the increasing number of visitors to Marsa Sexual Health Center in Beirut. Yes, the people of Lebanon are definitely having sex, but the knowledge of sexual health and good sexual practice is not as wide-spread as the act of making love itself.

The sexual taboo is still very much a part of life in Lebanon, but there is also liberal sexual activities going on behind closed doors. It is very common to have sex before marriage but the stigma prohibits people from openly talking about it and even learning the best practices. This is a problem because there is so much to discuss on topic of sex and how to be safe.

However, the silence and the lack of sexual education in schools and other establishments often results in many people missing the essential knowledge they need about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and contraception. This can lead to diseases and infections being passed on and even unwanted pregnancies.

Young people often think in stereotypes when it comes to practicing healthy sex. For example, if a man looks decent and comes from a good family or has a well-paid job, the woman won’t think it is possible that he might have an STD. Lebanese teenagers tend to think that STDs are only common among criminals, lower class and immigrants and don’t consider it to be a problem in their own homogeneous social group.

The stigma needs to be broken so that more young people can get the education they need, that will ensure they make the right decision in future.

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Breaking The Sexual Stigma in Lebanon

Categories: Lebanon, sexual health, stigma