Angela Gilchrist
 |
Fighting Stigma or
Frightening Stuff?
Photo: Christian Payne |
When a celebrity like Stephen Fry can publicly admit
that he's recently attempted suicide and others like Catherine Zeta-Jones
announce they're checking into a clinic for maintenance of a bipolar disorder,
it would be tempting to believe that we've reached a new point in the
acceptance of mental illness.
Certainly, people are more open than they have ever been
about mental distress. Celebrity accounts fill the tabloids and the internet
abounds with stories from those either in the midst of recovery or resigned to
a lifetime of psychiatric input. Films have leading characters with bipolar, MP's have discussed their mental health woes, and we’ve made it illegal to discriminate on mental health grounds. These are signs
that we're beginning to understand mental ill-health as just another form of
distress. Given all this evidence, you could be forgiven for thinking that the
stigma of mental illness is a thing of the past. The reality though, sometimes
seems very different.
