2 Ways to Handle People Who Stigmatize Mental Health

While there are many people in the world who continue to stigmatize mental health, sometimes the most trying situations come from dealing with the people in our immediate lives who continue to spread stigma. There are a number of ways to handle people who approach mental health from a perspective of stigma, but here are 2 easy ways that you can deal with the people in your life.

We Can't Always Just Walk Away from Stigmatizing People

Whether it's family, friends, colleagues, or some other people that are inevitably a part of our lives and social circles, addressing their stigmatizing ways adds another layer of complication because you may not be able to just walk away from these people. There are plenty of reasons why someone might not be able to walk away because of these ties, so we have to work out alternative methods to try to deal with these kinds of situations and people.

The 2 tips I have are for those moments when educating a person doesn't work. As hard as we try, some people just aren't receptive to seeing beyond the myths of mental illness and can't understand how stigma can hurt people with these disorders. This is where I would typically say to walk away, but as we've just established, that's not always possible. So what do we do to protect ourselves and filter out this stigma?

2 Simple Tips for Dealing with Stigmatizing People in Your Life

I've had my fair share of people in my life who say stigmatizing things about mental health, whether they were directed at me or just mental health in general. ("What is Stigma?") I could simply ignore them, but it can be difficult to do so, especially when that person is a constant factor. I knew I had to find other ways to deal with these situations. Watch this video to learn what I came up with.