Students and professors say stigmas on mental health are evolving, but more work is needed
By Kaylea Brown, Student Reporter
Kelby Jones was thinking of what would end if her life ended.
She was tired and stressed about all the things that were going on in her daily life. Then something happened that made her mind start racing.
She was alone at home, and the only sound she could hear was the constant ringing of her phone. Jones could hear a voice in her head that said: “Just do it. You won’t have to deal with this anymore if you just do it.”
Jones’ thoughts were so overwhelming that she tried to take her own life.
The phone was still ringing, but the only person Jones wanted to talk to was her mother. In a flustered state, Jones called her. After getting off the phone with her calm-sounding mother, Jones started having a panic attack.
The next day, Jones’ family took her to the hospital. She was finally able to talk to someone about the feelings she had been holding onto. This was the day Jones received her diagnosis.
On April 26, Jones was diagnosed with severe depression and general anxiety disorder.
One in 25 Americans have a serious mental illness, including depression, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Mental health is an issue that affects every aspect of a person’s life, and stigmas about mental health can complicate the lives of people with mental health disorders.
Jones’ story is that of a real student at Northwestern. The Northwestern News has changed her name in this story to protect her privacy.
Experiences with mental health disorders vary from person to person. Jones is one of many people who struggled to receive a diagnosis.
Jones said that, before she was diagnosed, she did not discuss her mental health with her family, especially her parents, because she thought they would not understand.
“They were raised differently,” Jones said. “One of them didn’t go to school, and the other was a popular kid. I wasn’t like that in high school.”
SOME LACK ACCESS TO TREATMENT
Jones is from a town in northwest Oklahoma with a population of roughly 700. Her hometown does not have a hospital, and the closest counseling center is 20 minutes away. The distance from a counseling center is one of the barriers people face in getting treatment.
Dr. Jason Ferrell, an assistant professor and chair of psychology at Northwestern, said two major barriers to getting treatment for mental health exist: the cost of counseling services and medicine as well as the distance to access those services.
“We have millions of people in this country that aren’t insured and can’t afford it,” Ferrell said. “Often, the help people need is out there. They just can’t get to it or pay for it.”
MENTAL HEALTH STIGMAS AFFECT SELF-IMAGE
The physical and financial barriers are not the only problems people with mental health disorders must overcome. They also deal with stigmas, labels of disgrace society has placed on mental health.
Stigmas about mental health can sometimes keep people from seeking treatment.
“In our society … if we break our leg, we don’t have much stigma,” Ferrell said. “But if we have a broken heart, it’s not the same. To be mentally healthy, we have to be physically healthy. Those things work in conjunction.”
Stigmas have an impact on a national, state and regional level, whether people are expressing their concerns with their mental health before receiving a diagnosis or dealing with a mental disorder after a diagnosis.
Taylor Wilson, director of counseling and career services at Northwestern, said she believes stigmas have an impact on the way society views individuals with mental health disorders and the way individuals with mental illnesses view themselves.
Many people with mental health disorders, like anxiety and depression, struggle with their self-image and talking to others, Wilson said.
Another student at Northwestern, who will be referred to as Susan Thomas for privacy reasons, is diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Both illnesses cause her to struggle in both her social and academic life.
“With my academics, I get worried that I’m not going to do well,” Thomas said. “It brings me down a little bit. … I’m so worried about one thing that I don’t worry about the others.”
Thomas received her diagnosis after her mother scheduled a doctor’s appointment because she noticed Thomas was fidgeting.
Restlessness is a common symptom of anxiety, according to the Mayo Clinic. However, it can also be a symptom of other illnesses.
When Thomas received her diagnosis, she said she worried that people would judge her because of it. She said people in her hometown had a tendency to look down on those who were not like everybody else.
STIGMAS DECREASING
Many people believe this tendency to look down on those with mental disorders is decreasing.
Violet McGuire, a 20-year-old junior agriculture major from Owasso, said she believes that to be true.
McGuire said that, if this topic were brought up a few years ago, it would not be possible to discuss mental health the way it is discussed today.
“Our generation is growing up, and we’re teaching the younger generations that it’s not weird,” McGuire said. “I think our generation is changing the mindset on it because we’re so comfortable talking about everything.”
The generation McGuire is referring to is Generation Z, which includes people born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s.
Previous generations looked at mental health as a taboo topic that had to be hidden, but younger generations are making it a conversation topic, McGuire said.
MEDIA PORTRAYAL NOT ALWAYS ACCURATE
Today, people can be heard talking about mental health in a variety of diverse ways.
People with mental health issues are portrayed in movies and popular shows on TV, showing what it is like for people with disorders in a dramatized way. McGuire said the use of mental health in TV is both a good thing and a bad thing.
Some shows allow people to see what some of the characteristics of mental illnesses are, while others show people with severe cases and make them seem crazy, McGuire said.
In addition to mental health being talked about on TV, it is also possible to hear people talking about their experience of having a mental disorder. Others, like McGuire, say they have become advocates for people in their lives who have struggled with their mental health.
McGuire said she has seen the struggles of a friend who is on medication to help with depression. She sees the differences between when the friend is taking her medicine and when she is not.
McGuire said she believes talking about mental health should be normalized to prevent people from deal with those issues in silence.
“I don’t think anybody should have to go through that,” McGuire said.
McGuire said she believes being around people who make you feel happy and safe is helpful, as they become a support system. She also said mental health should be talked about more in school, as talking about it could help change stigmas surrounding the topic.
Ferrell, the professor, said the lack of knowledge about mental health in society — how to help those who are struggling and how to manage mental health issues — is because most people do not have to look at mental health unless they are a psychology major. It is easier for people to look at physical health because most people know a little about basic health.
“What we know is that mental health is physical health, and physical health is mental health,” Ferrell said. “Our physical and psychological processes work together for our holistic health … and so to be physically healthy, we have to be mentally healthy.”
