I had recently come across this comic strip that was originally from a
blog called Robot Hugs which eloquently expresses how much of society
sees mental illness and how it is treated in comparison to physical
diseases. Although it is a tad exaggerated, it doesn’t dampen the
gravity of the way some individuals view mental illness. Unfortunately,
despite the progression of contemporary
psychology and psychiatry today, society still views mental illness with
a stigma. Often, individuals who are suffering from depression,
anxiety, and any other mental illness are viewed as weak and unable to
emotionally adapt to the stressors and the harshness of life. However,
what people fail to understand is that just like physical diseases,
individuals also do not have control over their mental illnesses. Mental
illnesses are caused by a multitude of factors, such as genetic
heritability, the occurrence of chemical imbalances in the brain, as
well as other environmental causes. According to the
Diathesis-Stress model, different people have different predisposed
vulnerabilities to stressors, which are environmental factors that can
disrupt an individual’s psychological stability that can trigger the
development of a mental disorder. Individuals have an inherent
susceptibility or vulnerability to stressors, and some people may be
more at-risk to mental illnesses compared to others. The more
susceptible an individual is to these stressors, the less environmental
factors it will take for them to develop mental illnesses. If the
individual’s predisposition in conjunction with the amount of stressors
extends beyond his or her mental capacity, he or she will develop a
disorder. Let’s talk about this in simpler terms by comparing
people’s ability to handle stress to jars of water. In this example, the
water in these jars represents stressors. The size of the jars
represents the capacity for individuals to handle stressors. The sizes
of the jars will vary, just as people’s ability to cope with stress will
vary. Similarly, the amount of water each jar can hold will also differ
just as the amount of stress one individual can cope with will differ.
The big jars and/or jars with less water can handle more water, just as
individuals with a greater capacity to cope and/or are experiencing less
stress can handle more stressors. However, small jars and/or jars that
are already full cannot take on much more water, making them unable to
hold as much water as the other jars. This is similar to people who have
less ability to cope and/or are already experiencing lots of stress in
their life and are unable to cope with added stress. If a jar is
constantly filled with water without any means of draining it, it will
eventually overflow. Just like individuals when stress exceeds our
mental capacities, we become overwhelmed to the point of dysfunction in
our lives. Therefore, just as different people have varying
immunity (immune strength) and susceptibility to sickness, every
individual has a varying susceptibility to mental illness as well. Being
unable to see the physical manifestation of mental illness does not
make them any less grave than a physical disease or injury.
The reason I shared this comic strip is to raise awareness of how we
interact with those who are suffering from mental illnesses. A lack of
understanding can lead to, whether or not deliberately, a lack of
empathy. Source: |