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What does stigma mean?
-Gwenyth
Is being Catatonic a real disease?
Stigma is typically what someone believes about a specific topic, not unlike a stereotype.
A typical stigma with mental health is that people that suffer from mental disorders are different from everybody else, which we all know is not true!
Hope this helps 
This post was edited on: 2010-10-08 at 12:08 PM by: Zach Norris
i get mad really easy is that a mental illness?
-Jurnee
I actually wasn't surprised when the doctor showed the statistics for the suicide.
I would've thought that the girls would've been more likely to commit suicide rather than boys, because we have more pressure to look perfect and we are compared more to celebrities and stuff.
Stigma can be defined as the negative ideas or impressions associated with something. In terms of mental health, stigma makes it hard to talk about mental health for fear that it might harm one's reputation or change the way people think about one's personality or character.
This article from the mindyourmind website can help to get a good idea of what stigma is, and how it can make mental health harder to deal with and talk about: http://mindyourmind.ca/help/facts-a-symptoms/68-stigma-and-mental-illness. Here's a quote from it:
When someone appears to be different than us, we may view him or her in a negative stereotyped manner. People who have identities that society values negatively are said to be stigmatized. Stigma is a reality for people with a mental illness, and they report that how others judge them is one of their greatest barriers to a complete and satisfying life. Society feels uncomfortable about mental illness. It is not seen like other illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. Due to inaccuracies and misunderstandings, people have been led to believe that an individual with a mental illness has a weak character or is inevitably dangerous. Mental illness can be called the invisible illness. Often, the only way to know whether someone has been diagnosed with a mental illness is if they tell you. The majority of the public is unaware of how many mentally ill people they know and encounter every day.
Does Marijuana lead to psychotic behaviour?
SheldonDahl wrote:
Is being Catatonic a real disease?
I did some looking around online, and this is what I found out:
Catatonia is characterized by muscular rigidity, marked motor abnormalities including immobility, excessive motor activity (purposeless agitation), extreme negativism, mutism (inability or unwillingness to speak), echolalia (parrot like repetition of a word or phrase spoken by another person), and/or echopraxia (the involuntary imitation of movements of another person).
It isn't recognized as a separate disorder, but is associated with psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorders, depression and other mental disorders, as well as drug abuse or overdose.
It seems to be most closely associated with schizophrenia.
I would like to know if you can say what mental issue Ozzy Osbourne is struggling with or isn't. I have heard that he is meded up when at home so that he does not disturb his family but they stop the meds when he goes out on tour. - Colleen
Ozzy does not have a mebtal conditoion. its just that with all the drugs and alcohol in his system its amazing that hes still alive. he's just lost brain cells dueto massive amounts of drugs and alcohol
Super impressed with the courage so many of you have demonstrated today.
Sheldon Dahl
Oct 8, 2010 at 12:01 PM