Worth Living Ambassador Daniella Malone
Hello! My name is Daniella, I’m 24 years young. I live with Borderline Personality Disorder, Social Anxiety, and Depression. I am very passionate about spreading awareness, fighting the stigma surrounding mental illness, and helping people share their stories and speak out. I know that if we all join together no-one will ever feel alone in this fight again.
How the Internet Affects the Growing Stigma
The internet can be a very dangerous place for those vulnerable and easily effected by offensive and hurtful comments. I like to use the internet to write about my story, spread awareness, and educate people who are not as well knowledgeable when it comes to stigma surrounding mental illness.
However, I often feel I am faced with heated debates, arguments, and nasty comments from people who are quite frankly ignorant and uneducated.
I frequently hear comments like “she’s so skinny she must be anorexic” ,” I’m so OCD” , “cute but psycho.” I don’t really understand when it was made okay to slander mental disorders this way. So many disorders are thrown around flippantly when describing day to day life, it’s wrong.
It breaks my heart the way mental illness is treated as such a minority and brushed aside as if it’s an unimportant issue. Society has done this to us and made it okay to brush aside important issues, and I personally take it as my job, my duty to enlighten and educate people that using these phrases as wrong!
So many people unknowingly use these phrases without thinking behind the meaning, thinking about the further growing stigma it adds to those of us with debilitating mental illnesses!
Mental health issues are serious. We need to join hands and come together to educate each other and fight the stigma! If someone takes the time to explain how hurtful these phrases are LISTEN don’t just brush it off because we have been brushed aside and treated as a minority for too long. Using these ” turn of phrases” is wrong, hurtful, and quite frankly making a mockery of our suffering. People need to be aware how wrong these phrases are.
More and more studies are proving that 1 in 4 people suffer with their mental health, yet the stigma and the way we are treated as a minority is wrong and it needs to stop! We need to make a stand and put an end to this! We will only beat this stigma together. United as one.