Myths and misconceptions about mental illness contribute to the stigma, which leads many people to be ashamed and prevents them from seeking help. Stigma is something about a person that causes her or him to have a deeply compromised social standing, a mark of shame or discredit. Generally, people who have mental disorders are considered lazy, unintelligent, worthless, stupid, unsafe to be with, violent, always in need of supervision, possessed by demons, recipients of divine punishment, unpredictable, unreliable, irresponsible, without conscious, incompetent to marry and raise children, unable to work, affects rich people, increasingly unwell throughout life, and in need of hospitalization. Unfortunately, such misconceptions remain predominant in people who are supposed to deliver the health care services. It is found that medical professionals share high proportion of misconceptions and have discriminatory attitude toward psychiatry and patients of mental disorders. This should not happen because effective treatment exists for almost all mental illnesses. Worse, the stigma experienced by people with a mental illness can be more destructive than the illness itself. Widespread social stigma, myths, and adverse belief systems of mental illness cannot be removed by just increasing the public awareness, but rather requires a comprehensive community-based program based on psychosocial understanding of the disease.
The public perception of the mentally ill as dangerous leads to stigmatization of those with these illnesses and contributes to increasing their disability and deprives them of participation in the life of the community.
A number of research studies found that the majority of the public still have difficulty accepting mentally ill people as employees, tenants, spouses or neighbors. The misconception that most mentally ill people are dangerous is clearly one of the sources of these attitudes. Other factors which influence these common stereotypes include the belief that serious disorders like schizophrenia are untreatable and that mentally illness make an individual less intelligent and less capable of reasoning like an adult.
One of the research studies found that knowledge of the treatability of schizophrenia positively changed participants’ attitudes toward the mentally ill and even reduced the perception of the dangerousness. Unfortunately, insurance companies are still allowed to discriminate against the mentally ill by placing strict limits and exclusions on what treatments they pay for, reinforcing the notion that mental illnesses are not the same as other medical disorders, and are less treatable. Discrimination against those with mental illness in health insurance also contributes to gaps between public perceptions and reality.
Stigma places obstructions to social success for patients. In addition, the attitudes of the public toward them is often internalized and results in lowered self-esteem, hopelessness and despair for sufferers. Families also suffer from stigma. A civilized society must reject old stereotypes and biases and dismantle the discrimination and stigmatization. The media also have a responsibility to report accurately and fairly, correcting misconceptions when necessary.
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Myth: If person have schizophrenia can’t hold a job.
Schizophrenia can make it harder for you to land a job and go to work every day. But with the right treatment, many people can find a position that suits their skills and abilities.
Myth: Schizophrenia makes people lazy.
People with schizophrenia may have a harder time taking care of their own daily needs, such as getting dressed and bathing. This does not mean they’re “lazy.” They just need a little extra help with their daily routine.
Myth: Schizophrenia is untreatable.
While schizophrenia is not curable, it is an eminently treatable and manageable chronic illness, just like diabetes or heart disease
Myth: People with schizophrenia can’t lead productive lives.
Many individuals can lead happy and productive lives. Schizophrenia is an illness like the diabetes and hypertension that needs to be maintained and monitored. With the right maintaining treatment, people with schizophrenia can lead normal, happy and productive lives.
Myth: Medications make sufferers zombies.
When we think of antipsychotic medication for schizophrenia, we automatically think of adjectives like lethargic, listless, uninterested and vacant. Many believe medication causes these sorts of symptoms. However, most often these symptoms are either from schizophrenia itself or because of overmedication. Zombie-like reactions are “relatively minor, compared with the number of patients who have never been given an adequate trial of available medications.
Myth: Antipsychotic medications are worse than the illness itself.
Medication is the mainstay of schizophrenia treatment. Antipsychotic medications effectively reduce hallucinations, delusions, confusing thoughts and bizarre behaviours. These agents can have severe side effects and can be fatal, but this is rare. “Antipsychotic drugs, as a group, are one of the safest groups of drugs in common use and are the greatest advance in the treatment of schizophrenia that has occurred to date
Myth: Individuals with schizophrenia can never regain normal functioning.
Unlike dementia, which worsens over time or doesn’t improve, schizophrenia seems to be a problem that’s reversible,. There’s no line that once it’s crossed signifies that there’s no hope for a person with schizophrenia.
Myth: Person can never recover from schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia can be hard to treat, but it’s not impossible. With the right medicine and therapy, about 25% of people with schizophrenia will have a full recovery.
Another 50% will see some improvement in their symptoms. Many people with schizophrenia can live full, productive lives.
Conclusion
As we see from the list above, there are obviously quite a few misconceptions about schizophrenia. There are some main causes that keep these myths alive, such as the media’s repetition of them, and the lack of education surrounding this illness to those who have not personally experienced it in themselves or their family. Big myths are hard to destroy, but with time, we can all do it together. Arm ourselves with knowledge so we can refute any of these myths as we encounter them in our daily life!
