Stigma

Published by

Clarissa

June 1, 2017

There is a great stigma about discussing one’s own mental health in our society. . .

This is a serious problem, especially in academia.

There is an even greater stigma attached to discussing your digestive troubles at work. Or sexual dysfunction. Or reproductive issues. Or any illness, to be honest.

I have to confess that I wouldn’t be super happy if colleagues started regaling me with any details of their medical histories. The only thing I welcome even less is hearing about the health issues of students.

God, can nothing just be private any more? Not every issue of one’s personal life requires a discussion group in the workplace.

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6 responses to “Stigma”

Alex

June 1, 2017

People have gone WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too far with “The personal is political.”

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JProf

June 1, 2017

I promise to try to fight this stigma in academia by asking colleagues to talk about their mental health issues at the first department meeting in the fall. 🙂

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Demotrash

June 1, 2017

Swadley’s story reminded me a lot of the AIDS epidemic

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/05/the-addicts-next-door

https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js

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Dreidel

June 1, 2017

The article you linked to is the sort of hypersensitive baloney that’s quite common in academic circles nowadays. Essentially EVERYBODY who’s working hard to obtain an advanced post-graduate degree feels stressed out, anxious, and depressed at some point during their studies. That’s called “life” — it isn’t called”mental illness.”

A teacher’s jobs is to teach, not to give everybody a warm hug and play amateur shrink.

The article reminds me of a “research project” done by a team of psychiatrists some years ago that said that virtually ALL U.S. presidents were mentally ill at some stage during their presidency because they all felt strong emotions about something or other. By that standard, every human being who isn’t a borderline personality disorder is crazy. Absurd!

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1. cliff arroyo
  
  June 2, 2017
  
  Yes, finding a list of symptoms of mental illness and then “diagnosing” someone to “prove” they are mentally ill is a baby trick (maybe that’s disrespectful to babies…).
  
  More and more, the internet is devolving into media hyptnotizing gullible people with warmed over techniques of manipulation that I’d thought people had gotten over decades ago…. apparently not.
  
  There is no human existence as liquid as the womb (and none so confining) yet it seems that people are determined to infantilize themselves with this nonsense.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    June 2, 2017
    
    When you’ve got nothing else to offer to the world, you can always sell woundedness.
    
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