Persistent Stigma, Skepticism About Mental Illness Causes Real Harm | CommonHealth

But why? Why, in this day and age, does this scenario so stubbornly persist?

I think it’s because plenty of people still feel that psychiatric suffering isn’t real. And this causes genuine harm. If Sally encounters resistance to the fact that she’s suffering, she’ll almost certainly be less likely to seek care. If she feels that her non-psychiatric doctors don’t take her suffering seriously, then she’s going to suffer quietly and dangerously.

There’s even evidence that doctors themselves don’t believe this type of pain is real — and they sometimes wonder whether depression results from a moral failing.

Looking at the problem from another perspective, consider this anonymous comment I got from a medical student in the psychiatry course I teach: “Dear Dr. Schlozman: The psychiatry course convinces even the biggest skeptics.”

This comment, entirely well meaning, is also deceptively profound. Whenever I contemplate the vexing world of stigma with regard to mental health, I think first of this comment.

Let’s deconstruct what this student is saying.

“The psychiatry course convinced skeptics.”

Does the doctor teaching cardiology have to convince skeptics? Does anyone refuse to believe in nephrology? The burdens placed on psychiatric patients stem largely from the skepticism that many in the community, including the medical community, still patently feel and express. Simply put, quite a few health care providers do not believe that many psychiatric illnesses are real. This is despite data-laden policy papers from the Office of the Surgeon General, from the CDC and even from the World Health Organization.

Doctors, policy makers and the general population still have a long way to go toward accepting psychiatric suffering as part of the medical canon.

That’s not to say that we haven’t made huge strides. In fact, one might argue that the increasingly vocal debates that are happening now with regard to psychiatric suffering are happening precisely because we have allowed ourselves to discuss these issues in open forums. To that end, these discussions are absolutely necessary if we’re to move forward.

Persistent Stigma, Skepticism About Mental Illness Causes Real Harm | CommonHealth