Stop talking about it

We've all heard about "Self-Fulfilling prophecies", the idea that the more you talk about something the likelier it is to happen.

In fact, a lot of our vocabulary has changed in the past 20 or so years in order to perceive things more positively. We talk about mental "health" instead of mental "illness", "health centres" as opposed to "hospitals", and "challenges" have replaced "problems".

When used in the context of making things seem less difficult, I find this to be fine.

Where I have a harder time though is those situations for which we choose to keep negative vocabulary because we simply do not want to put a positive spin on something.

The main one is the word "stigma" when reference to mental (interestingly enough here we say) "illness".

The biggest irony is that practically everyone would agree that the stigma of mental illness is negative, and something we need to eliminate. If that's the case, why do we keep referring to it?

My "theory" is that we (as a society, perhaps even as a species) are so fearful of mental illness (especially in men because the idea of the "hunter / gatherer / provider" not being able to function is absolutely inconceivable), that we continue to refer to a "stigma"; that way we don't have to address it.

By continuing to call mentall illness "stigmatized", we re-inforce the stigma!!!

Are we willing to talk about mental illness the same way we do diabetes, cancer, and heart disease?

Do we have the courage to face mental illness, admit that it can cripple (or is it "challenge") any one of us, and that just like many other diseases, it does not discriminate on age, gender, race, or anything else?