My Journey With Health And Fitness – Time To Get Rid Of The Stigma

Recently we had our deck replaced. It had developed many soft spots and was getting to the point that it was unsafe. It ended up being far more expensive than we thought it would be so I joked we will have to spend all of our spare time on the deck for the rest of the summer. My husband seems to be taking that seriously. The reality is because the deck is so nice and the layout is much better, we all are spending a lot of time out there. As well, we have had several friends over to enjoy sitting out there with us. While it was costly, I now think it is well worth it.

A friend posted on FB the other day about her mental health. She noted that she knew she had ADHD and depression but she had recently hit her lowest point ever. She paid to see a psychiatrist in the US (she’s American) and was diagnosed as bipolar. They are now working on an effective treatment plan which may take some time. She says she posted about this diagnosis because there is still so much stigma attached to mental health issues and we need to change that, I couldn’t agree more.

When I was in my 20’s I remember people I worked with who would take stress leave. When this happened the rest of us would talk about how that person was scamming the system. How could they be that stressed, we asked. We discussed how stress wasn’t an illness and tried to figure out why doctors would so easily validate this type of leave. Oh, and if we heard the person was doing things like going to the gym or on a vacation, well that just proved they were faking. I am so glad I would later learn how wrong we were.

As I became more and more involved with health and safety in the workplace I started learning that mental health issues can manifest as physical issues. It started with changing the narrative from stress leave (which doesn’t exist) to sick leave due to stress related illness. If I heard people talk about stress leave I would correct them every time. I eventually taught a course regarding stress in the workplace and would draw a body on a flipchart. I would then ask participants to use sticky dots to place on that body to indicate where they felt it when they were under a lot of stress. When they were done the participants were always surprised to see all the dots particularly on the head, back of the neck, shoulders, stomach, etc. I explained this is how we know that stress impacts us physically.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that we need to start pushing the narrative that mental health is health, end of story. We need to remove the stigma of mental health issues as being seen differently from physical health. We need those suffering from mental health issues feel comfortable about seeking help and treatment rather than worrying that they will be looked down upon. We just need to make mental health issues a normal part of health care.

I am happy that my friend decided to put her situation out there. I am hoping that it will start a very important dialogue and take more people down the path of removing the stigma around mental health issues.