| ||Minding Your Mind || | Understanding the Stigma of Mental
Illness April 25, 2011 By Michael Craig Miller, M.D. Harvard
Medical School In our society, it is common to hear disparaging
remarks and jokes about mental illness or the clinicians who
treat psychiatric disorders. Every October, the National
Alliance on Mental Illness reports on insulting Halloween
costumes, such as those looking like straitjackets or the ones
with names like "Dr. Malice" and "Cell Block Psycho." Aside from
being distasteful, they add to the persistent stigma associated
with and stereotype of people with mental illness. For the
mental health clinician, stigma is important because it causes
many people to delay seeking help and getting treatment.
Consider this: - One national survey found that only 51% of
Americans with symptoms of major depression in the previous year
were receiving any kind of treatment, whether with
antidepressants or psychotherapy. - Another survey found that
only about half of people with social anxiety disord