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accessHealthNews.net
May 2024
Volume 10 | Issue No. 84
Despite significant progress toward
normalizing mental health and reducing
the stigma associated with its diagnosis
and treatment, most of this change has
occurred in wealthy urban areas. Attitudes
about mental health in rural America and
communities outside the mainstream have
been slower to change and retain some
resistance to discussing mental conditions
and mental health openly, without
judgment.
Such a strong taboo on the subject of
mental health means that conversations
and education around baseline care and
non-critical check-ups are also much less
common. In other words, if talking about
it can be avoided, it is avoided. As with
physical health, lack of preventative
care and education worsens health
outcomes, and care and diagnoses are
only finally pursued when the situation has
deteriorated enough that it is no longer
avoidable.
As a consequence of this pattern, getting
any form of mental health diagnosis
means one of two things: either the
person and their support system are
relatively forward-thinking and willing to
seek mental health care without being
under duress, or the person's condition
has worsened to the point where it has
become sufficiently disruptive to
demand attention.
In the latter cases, unlearning enough
stigma to make room to learn new
mental health care techniques and
information is often a long process of
trial and error, as learning to live with, or
care for, a significantly disruptive mental
health condition is a complicated journey.
In cases where more than one such
condition is diagnosed, this is even
more true.
READ MORE
"I did not know anything about autism. I was not aware of autism.
The only thing I knew was that a few years before, there was the
movie Rain Man. That's all I knew about, and I kept saying, 'That's
not my son.' But actually, it was my son."
- Muriel Jones, mother of a son with an autism
spectrum disorder and schizophrenia
