- When something's wrong with your stomach,
you go to the doctor.
When something's wrong with your mind, you don't?
Okay so I have good news and bad news.
The good news is today we're gonna tackle something
that affects people regardless of their race,
gender, class, religion, or sexual orientation.
Hooray!
The bad news, that thing is mental health stigma,
which often prevents people from getting the help
that they need.
The opposite of hooray!
So considering that about one in five Americans
deal with mental health issues,
let's look at some of the stigmas that need to go.
Stigma number one, only those kind of people have issues.
Let's see if any of these sound familiar.
Mental health issues, that's an excuse for losers.
Yeah, except Cara Delevingne has openly talked
about her issues with anxiety
and David Beckham has talked about his OCD.
So an incredibly successful model/actress
and one of the planet's best athletes are losers?
Clearly having mental health issues
doesn't mean you can't be successful.
Fine, fine, but we all know mental health problems
are really white problems.
Except Kid Cudi, Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar,
and Eva Longoria have all talked about their struggles
with depression, so no.
Okay but when teenagers say that stuff
they're clearly exaggerating.
Well except that Demi Lovato has opened up
about how she's had suicidal thoughts as early as age seven
and was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder at 19.
Look, over 40 million Americas suffer
from mental health conditions every year
and these issues can happen to you whether you're Black,
White, Asian, Latino, attractive, unattractive,
rich, poor, male, female, young, or old,
which basically covers you know, everyone.
Stigma number two, having serious mental health issues
makes you violent.
Do mental health issues cause people to be violent?
Short answer, no.
Long answer, noooooooo.
Research shows that people with mental health issues
are no more likely to be violent
than the general population
and that only three to five percent of violent acts
in the US can be attributed to people living
with serious mental illness.
So why does this idea continue to stick around?
Well hacky Hollywood screenwriters can definitely
take some of the credit for this one.
From Hitchcock's Psycho to M. Night Shyamalan's Split,
Hollywood loves to write about violent villains
motivated by the mental health disorder dejour.
One tiny problem with this trope
is it's almost entirely backwards.
People with severe mental illnesses
are over 10 times more likely to be victims
of violent crime than the general population.
So to all current and aspiring Hollywood screenwriters,
please do your homework, okay?
Thanks.
Stigma number three, this stuff isn't real,
you just need to snap out of it.
Well first of all, don't you think if people
suffering from mental health issues could just
snap out of it, they would?
Most psychiatric disorders develop at least in part,
due to an underlying genetic predisposition
and/or a chemical imbalance within the brain.
And what makes mental health issues difficult is
unlike say, a broken leg, the symptoms may not always
be visible to the untrained observer,
but that doesn't mean they're not real.
So just like you wouldn't tell someone with a broken leg
to just walk it off, people can't just shake off
conditions like depression.
Now of course the flip side of this is,
stigma number four, all you really need is love.
Well I'm not gonna badmouth love
because for many people with mental health issues,
the love of family and friends is a big part of recovery,
but it's not a cure-all.
For example, the popular series 13 Reasons Why
is a story of uncovering the reasons why
a depressed young girl committed suicide.
In it we hear heartbreaking lines like
"I cost a girl her life because I was afraid to love her"
and "We all killed Hannah Baker."
Which, no, I can give you 100 reasons why
neither of those things are true.
Hollywood, we just talked about this.
Look, we should always aim to love and care for people
going through a hard time,
but people with serious mental health issues
such as severe depression,
and by the way 90 percent of people who commit suicide
are suffering from mental health issues,
need professional help and sometimes they need medication.
As much as you'd like to, you can't just love someone
out of depression or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Which brings us to stigma number five,
there's no cure for mental health issues.
Well that's not really true.
For many mental health disorders,
even some of the most severe, there are treatments that work
and everyone's process is different.
For me, I've managed my depression and anxiety
through things like therapy, meditation, and fitness.
But that doesn't mean I'm cured
because that implies a total and complete reversal.
And sometimes I still get depressed,
but now I have tools to work through it,
which is why professionals prefer the term recovery,
because mental health is a process.
And here's the thing, if you think you need help
to find a better mental space, go for it.
There's absolutely no shame in asking for help.
And if you or someone you know is struggling
with mental health issues, check the description box
for links to resources at MTV's Look Different
and their partnership with Half Of Us.
Thanks for watching.
We'll see you in two weeks, right here on Decoded.