Opinion: Letting the sun set on stigma

For decades, one of the most common stock tropes for horror stories has been that of insanity. Villains hear sinister voices telling them to commit atrocities or have alternate personalities bent on murdering as many people as they can.

These kinds of portrayals are far from compassionate, and they’re far from accurate.

Many people live with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or dissociative identity disorder, and for them, constant portrayals of people like them as villains are just part of a larger, real-world stigma that negatively influences their lives.

It’s important to treat all mentally ill people, including those with illnesses perceived as “scary,” with kindness, compassion, and respect. We’ve made great strides in recent years when it comes to destigmatizing illnesses such as depression and anxiety, but many mentally ill people have been left behind.

One reason stigma against some mental illnesses is so prevalent is that many people have inaccurate ideas of what these illnesses actually look like and how common they are. 

For example, Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, occurs in between 0.5% and 2% of the population (if that seems like a small number to you, consider how many redheads you have met, and remember that they make up 1-2% of the population).

DID is a way that the brain sometimes deals with trauma. An Infinite Mind, a self-advocacy website for people with DID, writes, “To escape pain and trauma in childhood, the mind splits off feelings, personality traits, characteristics, and memories, into separate compartments which then develop into unique personality states.” These different personality states, often called alters, help a person survive the trauma they are experiencing.

People with DID experience the lingering effects of their trauma along with gaps in memory when one alter or another takes over, but these gaps don’t involve murder sprees. Many people with DID live successful lives, and through therapy are able to process their trauma and either integrate their alters into a single individual or find balance and happiness living with their headmates. 

Still, the stigma attached to their illness can cause shame and distress.

One survivor, Margaret G., wrote “I knew that was the only diagnosis that made any sense, BUT hated that diagnosis for a long time. That was for crazy people and they got put away.” Another, whose story was published anonymously, wrote, “It’s self-perpetuating – the stigma of DID pervasively exists, requiring that those of us with DID step forward to share our stories so that the world may know who we really are. However, those of us with DID fear stepping forward as the stigma of DID and all mental illness could seriously negatively impact our lives.”

People shouldn’t have to feel afraid and ashamed about parts of themselves they cannot control. Illness is not morality, but how we treat those around us, who are different from us, certainly is.

Being human is a deeply strange, complex experience, and brains react to it in all sorts of ways. Everyone deserves a chance to receive love and acceptance, and everyone deserves the chance to live safe, happy, and fulfilled lives.

Just like people with depression and anxiety, people with more stigmatized or “scary” mental disorders are wonderfully human, with their own unique perspectives and things to offer others. It’s long past time we stopped treating them like monsters and started embracing them in our lives and communities.

Katelyn Allred is an opinion writer in her junior year of college. She’s studying English with an emphasis in creative writing and enjoys reading, listening to podcasts, and baking.

katelyn.allred@usu.edu