Liberate Minds is a campaign to stop stigma associated with mental illness. Mental illness is very common, yet there are many ways stigma is present in our lives. We need to be more aware of how we can stop it.
Language Use
Liberate Minds promotes eliminating the inappropriate use of words like "crazy" and "insane" as adjectives from our everyday vocabulary. They relate directly to mental instability, yet we use them in multiple contexts, most of which don't relate to mental health at all. They're a gateway for mental health to be used as an escape goat. Using a mental illness to describe a situation that has nothing to do with being mentally ill should be avoided.
Liberate Mind's Journey in the Amazon
Some products that were once sold by Amazon were deeply stigmatizing and offensive to the mentally ill. None of these products should have been for sale. Some examples include shirts that said #suicide, #depression and Suicide Watch with associated triggering graphics. Liberate Minds was sending letters to Amazon.com and has had success! Amazon listened to the tens of thousands of letters, phone calls and emails and pulled almost all of the products. On the Canadian branch one still remains and there are still the “Got Depression?” products for sale on the American website. Thank you to everyone who contacted Amazon concerning these shirts. And thank you to Mark Henick for creating the amazingly successful change.org petition with 62,022 signatures. (There is a link attached to the petition under the Media page.)
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A few months after Liberate Minds Success, I realized something. It was never about news stories, or radio segments or even t-shirts. It was about spreading a message of hope. As Jamie Tworkowski says - "We need to be living, breathing screaming invitations to believe in better things." And I will scream off of every roof top on this planet if that's what it takes for just one person to believe that someone cares.
Here are some links to their taken-down and still-remaining products:
Awareness
Liberate Minds is finding ways of taking action to create awareness of stigma towards the mentally ill. Being more aware will help to bring a positive change and help many. In addition to writing to Amazon to get them to eliminate their harmful products, you can take note of how many times a day you hear and use words that are stigmatizing.
What is Stigma?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary's definition of stigma is "a set of negative and often unfair beliefs that a society or group of people have about something.” When we talk about stigma associated with mental illness, we are talking about treating those who have a mental illness with disrespect, as though they are not equal to people without one. It's like someone with cancer being treated negatively and unfairly because they are physically sick: that would obviously be odd and unjust. But this happens every day to those with depression, suicidal thoughts, panic attacks, social anxiety, and every other form of mental illness that exists, yet the stigma associated with it is barely recognized. For example, our use of the words "crazy", "insane" and other words of that sort shows our lack of knowledge about and respect for the mentally ill.
Why is it important to prevent stigma?
Stigma prevents the mentally ill from seeking help for fear of being treated unequally and with disrespect. That can keep them from receiving proper treatment. If we removed the stigma associated with mental illness, sufferers would feel more open to seeking help; therefore, many more would reach out than do now. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, in Canada 1 in 5 adults have a mental illness. Furthermore, 20% of children and youth have a mental illness, and amongst those children less than 20% receive therapeutic intervention. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, in the United States 1 in 4 adults have a mental illness, and in children aged 13–18, 1 in 5 of them are or will be diagnosed with a serious one.
The fear of stigma that the mentally ill experience is extremely harmful and also has an impact on our judicial system. For example, it was mentioned in Episode 53 of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that, in the United States, there are ten times more people with a mental illness in prison than in state-funded psychiatric treatment. That is stigma in action—preventing those who need help from receiving it. The mentally ill deserve the same respect that the mentally healthy do, and it is time to make that a reality.
Preventing stigma doesn't only make someone's day better, it saves lives.
For more statistics and facts, please visit the following links:
https://alberta.cmha.ca/mental_health/statistics/
https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers
Liberate Minds
Stigma
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Maggie Harder, a fifteen-year-old ally inspired to create change, decided to create the campaign Liberate Minds when she found out that millions were being disrespected because their illness was in their mind and not their body.
How was Liberate Minds created?