by Adrianna Ohmes

You sit down on your couch and turn on the TV. A crime solving drama just happens to be on and chances are that the antagonist in the episode is described as a lunatic, crazy, or freak. Later in the episode, it might be explained that the antagonist is actually mentally ill.

This is normal. Our society has come to expect that all mentally ill people are “crazy” or “freaks”.

That’s exactly the problem.

I’ve heard students at our school describe someone as being a “crazy” or a “looney” and the people they were speaking about are dealing with mental illness.

People who are mentally ill are not any of those things.

Since I’m someone who has listened to one of my best friends tell me about her mental illness, her mistreatment at school, and eventually her suicide attempts, I understand how inaccurately society labels and portrays the mentally ill.

Mental illness can be found anywhere, in anyone. It does not discriminate whether you are male, female, white, black, hispanic, American, European, rich, poor, old, young, Christian, or Atheist. People with mental illnesses are just like anyone else. They have friends, families, school work, a job and a future to worry about just like anyone else. They also might have a chemical imbalance, neurological disorder, traumatic experience or any other number of issues that they are dealing with. Some people’s illnesses or disorders are very mild and do not disrupt their daily lives. Others’ have mental illnesses that are much more serious.

But if everyone is receiving help and acting like nothing is different, how did these misconceptions about mental illness start?

The field of psychology is a relatively young one and is not thoroughly understood. Today, we know much more about the human mind, but before psychology became a topic of discussion in the late 1800s to the early 1900s, people with mental illness were written off as being possessed by evil entities. These people were often tortured and killed because of their “possession”. As the field of psychology expanded and mental illness was generally accepted as a legitimate illness, several stereotypes about people who suffer from mental illness still survived.

Normally, those with mental illness are stereotyped as crazy, weak, violent, criminal, abnormal, and freaky, depending on their illness. In 2011, Michael Ketteringham, an M.D and M.P.H. and fourth-year resident at NYU stated that based on survey’s, 61% of people think those who are schizophrenic are violent toward others and 50% are unpredictable.

Schizophrenia may only be one type of mental illness, but the point still stands. People with mental illnesses and are perceived as dangerous in society, but really those with psychosis are normally not violent. Ketteringham actually stated that the mentally ill are actually, “12 times more likely than others to be victims of crimes in cities.”

So how do we change these misconceptions in our society?

We talk about mental illness like it is any other illness. Something that with the proper treatment and support, can be handled like any other disease, like diabetes or asthma.

Medical attention and treatment are vital in helping someone manage their mental illness, but a supportive and understanding community is just as important.

Many people who are mentally ill are scared to tell people because they are afraid of what they might be labeled or how they might be treated. Those fears might be alleviated if society stays open-minded and sympathetic.

But those people who are being supportive must also understand mental illness doesn’t just disappear and never come back. Someone might recover and stay on their same system of treatment and never experience their illness at its worse again. But more likely than not, they will relapse.

Staying supportive through a relapse is important, but treating someone extra special because they’ve relapsed should be avoided. You do not want to make it seem like you are only supportive if they relapse. They might not want or think they need to recover if they’re getting the most support when things are bad.

You also can’t just expect someone to relapse one day and be fine the next. Recovery takes time. Some people never fully recover.

Staying aware of how society and the people around you portray mental illness is important to help end the spreading of the stigma. Staying open-minded and sympathetic to everyone and whatever difficulties they’re facing doesn’t only help the situation but it makes you a far better human being.