25% of the world’s population at some point in their lives suffers from a mental disorder. Maybe YOU in the future! In addition to having to struggle with a horrible disease, they have to deal with the terrible stigma attached to mental illness and mental illness.
Billions of people blame, avoid, laugh at, shy away from and ignore almost everything about mental illness and the emotions felt by those who suffer from it.
Young people suffering from eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia, for example), face and must struggle with a mental illness.
How do you judge them? How are they judged?
– “What a shallow person!”
– “It’s the parents’ fault.”
– “I would give her a slap and you’d see if she would eat!” ….
How much damage, how much loneliness, how much distance generated by these comments so easy to say in realities so difficult to live! These comments contributed to lead the person suffering from the disease to silence, to feel alone, not understood… and from there to depression….
What about depression?…. How many opinionators, judges, “wise men” give their opinion – “she does nothing to go out”, “I already told her to go to her friends”, “it’s her fault, she doesn’t fight”, “it’s a story to get attention”. Incredible ignorance about a terrible disease… Do any of you blame those who have cancer for their illness? We blame the one who wanders lost in the horrible darkness of depression.
From depression, to suicide… After the so often empty words of condolence, again the judgments that blame the one who needed to flee to free himself, or the family who did not know… terrible burden of guilt for those relatives who think they did not realize it!… How could you realize it, if he hid the immense weight of his anguish? How could he not hide it if so many made him feel guilty of his illness?
Blame humanity until the tremendous stigma attached to mental illness is overcome.
Stigma is the set of unfavorable attitudes and beliefs that “discredit or reject” a person or a group because they are considered different. It has important consequences on the way individuals perceive themselves, so this process devalues people.
The fear of “losing one’s identity” leads to the fear of death… that same fear leads to the fear of losing one’s sanity. The MIND LIES TO US” accommodating our thinking to our convenience or to justify what we want it to justify. Sometimes, sometimes THE MIND LIES TO YOU so much that you lose your sense of reality and wander in your bubble, in your own world.
Stigma exacerbates the loneliness of the sick (there are few visits to those hospitalized for psychiatric illnesses); it makes the victims of the illness feel guilty; it shames those who have overcome it; it silences, hides, seeks to deny –“you don’t need a psychiatrist, what you have to do…”-, refusing to ask for help and to deal with it.– -, refusing to ask for help and to approach a treatment. Stigma destroys the patient’s self-esteem (as much as the disease itself destroys it). Fear leads to rejection of the victim! Not to mention the impact on work and personal relationships!
WE HAVE TO FIGHT AGAINST THE STIGMA if we really want to help the sick.
Driven by the Europamundo Foundation and the Rotary Foundation (present in 160 countries and with more than 1.4 million members) BELO seeks to help drive a movement where you join you and hundreds of millions of people, so that humanity faces that fear, reject the stigmas and help with it that “crazy” that tomorrow can be you! Mental illnesses, now with more impact than ever! Millions of disease-carrying ghosts sneak into thousands of minds every day! Especially young people! Emotional medicine to overcome the disease, is to help those beings who need in those moments your hand, your help, not your rejection, not guilt!… WILL YOU BE GUILTY FOR THEIR ENDING IN THE ABYSS?
Emotionally intense moments are the most conducive to creation.
Having a mental disorder does not mean not being creative, they are not medicated zombie minds! Thousands in their loneliness, in their anguish, in their suffering, create, create, create… music, stories, private writings, painting, social networks… WE WANT TO SHARE THE CREATIONS OF THOSE BEINGS facing mental problems!
Having a mental disorder does not mean not being creative, they are not medicated zombie minds!
BELO announces the LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS contest… to share the talent and emotions felt by people facing mental problems. Sharing their emotions, help to empathize with them, help others feel identified “it’s not just me”, HUMANIZE theimage of these beings whom society stigmatizes, rejects and often despises. By sharing their emotions we humanize their image, by humanizing them we overcome part of the fear we harbor and spread the need to overcome stigma. It will surprise the creative capacity of many. It helps the self-esteem of the participants, shares loneliness and gives hope!
