The Stigma Surrounding Depression
★ Note: i made a similar thread, which you can find here.
Hey there lovelies! *waves* i'm NewRomantic677. I've grown up surrounded by an environment where mental health especially Depression, was wildly stigmatised. you can find a few great articles about that over here, here, and here. (the last one was a BuzzFeed article that had contributions from actual people. It was an awesome read.) There are so many misconceptions out there that just add to the stigma of depression, and those articles do a pretty good job of explaining them.
✿ so how did I deal with my depression and how it was stigmatised? ✿
It's safe to say that the stigma surrounding my depression was made worse by the fact that i couldn't speak up about it. (discussed in the thread that i linked you guys to in the beginning) and when I saw my parents talking about how depressed people should just "get happier" it absolutely shattered. I want nothing ore than to demystify mental health, and I'm from an Indian family so our culture is a little more stigma-promotional ( I know not all Indians are like that, it's just that Indian culture is traditionally like that). So i dealt with my depression (and the stigma that it lugged around with it) by coming here! That's right, this lovely site helped me get out of depression. ( and it's worth mentioning that @MidniteAngel managed to motivate me to become a Listener. hehe.)
So feel free to tak to anyone on ths lovely site and share your experiences with depression stigma on this thread! hugs to everyone reading this ^-^ Also: as prt of the Forum Team and the 7 cups community I'm extremely proud to have the chance to facilitate stigma free discussions. As Always, I'm just A Pm Away 
Thank you Bae <3
It's just great that Desi girls like us can finally talk things out especially when we live in such a conservative culture and society. I agree, there is a lot of stigma around mental illness - depression especially. And it was this stigma that prevented many including myself from seeking help.
This is a great website that details the statistics of Depression Stigma.
In 1999 the U.S. Surgeon General labeled stigma as perhaps the biggest barrier to mental health care; this stigma manifests particularly in a phenomenon known as social distancing, whereby people with mental issues are more isolated from others. Eradicating the stigma and social distancing of people with mental illness must be a top public health priority in order to improve worldwide mental health and reduce economic burden.
More, people with mental health issues recognize and internalize this stigma to develop a strong self-stigma(link is external). This self-stigma will often undermine self-efficacy, resulting in a why try attitude that can worsen prospects of recovery. Further, as people begin to experience symptoms of their mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression, stigma may cause(link is external) some people to try to avoid, separate from or suppress these feelings, all of which have been linked to the worsening of well-being.
This stigma doesnt just worsen outcomes on a personal level, but also complicates the care and resources available to people with mental illness. In its Attitudes Towards Mental Illness report, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) noted that stigma can result in a lower prioritization of public resources and poorer quality of care. One research review of 22 studies that focused on barriers to care and mental illness determined that stigma and embarrassment were the top reasons why people with mental illness did not engage in medication adherence. The effects of stigma work both ways – mental health conditions are not typically screened in most health care settings, losing an important opportunity for care.