Stigma Stigma Stigma

[fazza]

I am not ging to eat your babies. I am not going to start barking at the moon. You have more chance of hurting me than I have of hurting you yet. You judge. My best friend told me that he is uncomfortable with me staying their because I have schizophrenia. He is scared that n the middle of the night I am going to loose control and stab him.

Stigma sucks big time. I have never thought about stabbing anyone. My voices tell me that I am ugly evil and fat and ugly. They never tell me to hurt anyone. Yet here we are. stigmatised a risk to society. Well up yours society,I never wanted to play by your rules anyway. I am schizophrenic my mind talks back to me. I embrace it, If you choose not to embrace me then thats fine I dont want to know you.

 

[Mayflower7]

It's not fair or right the stigma that goes with schizophenia. I wouldn't stab anybody either or hurt anyone.

 

[claude]

the stigma is really hard to handle. Sometimes i wonder if it is mainly internalised and if people knew more maybe it would be ok but i dunno, schiz really is portrayed as the "murderer disease" and it is pretty much ignored in all the modern day "mental health" campaigns.

i had a weird experience today. I saw someone i had been in hospital with in a group setting. He didn't remember me, he seemed very out of it when we were in hospital together. When we were in hospital he kept accusing me (and most others on the ward as well to be fair) of "scientific fraud" said i looked like a clown and he would loose it a bit and start on me and other people, start yelling and pushing. It sort of triggered my own paranoia, i was worried for a long time that his accusations were part of a plan to make me kill myself or they would stick and i would be imprisoned for this fraud he was on about which i knew nothing about. Today in this group he seemed much more normal, was talking about doing some volunteering but all his mannerisms were the same and it really made me paranoid thinking about all the stuff he'd accused me of in hospital. i couldn't shake the worry that maybe he has an ulterior motive, that there is something darker going on, i felt weirdly threatened by him. It made me really sad cause i of all people should be able to be more enlightened and sympathetic but i was unnerved being around him. It made me wonder if i am too optimistic thinking anyone would ever be able to see past the schiz label

 

[claude]

sorry, maybe that wasn't appropriate for the thread, sorry Fazza, your post just got me thinking

 

[Prairie Sky]

Yeah, there's a stigma that other mental illnesses don't even come close to.

After I was out of hospital I was describing some of the people I'd met to a family member, and mentioned that my roommate was a very sweet little Amish lady who was schizophrenic and delusional. His eyebrows popped up and before hastily changing the subject he gave me a look that clearly said "they put you in a room with one of those people?"

But before all this I was probably the same way. How do you "combat" stigma except through personal experience?

 

[PastelKittenX]

I know how you feel. I got kicked out off my childcare course after the nursery found out my illness.

 

[ramboghettouk]

that new labour benefit minister said he was going to stigmatise those on benefits and politicians have done a good job of it, if you explaim your on benefits because of disability the next question is what's the disability and do you say schitzoprenia

a lot of people are now stigmatised for been on benefits as well as schitzoprenia a double whammy

 

[Boring]

i've not quite thought of defining myself based on my mental illness. more like i coexist with it, and it makes me think extreme thoughts that can put me in danger. if people don't accept me, it's usually because of my illness but not necessarily because of me personally. in fact, it's usually not wise at all to tell people about my mental illness, but whenever i mess up badly, i usually tell the person for future references.

 

[Agatha]

It certainly is not fair. Many of us have been stigmatized. I have PTSD and people have thought because of it I was going to flip out and kill them. I've never even come close to that and know I never would but try to convince these jerks who stigmatize!!