How To Combat Stereotypes

Life is a game of “one of these are not like the others,” with people constantly trying to single out differences and consequently developing preconceptions towards the exception. It’s necessary for people to be aware of their effect on others, and it’s essential to work together in order to create a supportive culture for all. Delicate and often misunderstood, mental illness is such a crucial topic to be aware of. 1 in 5 people in the U.S. suffer from mental illness, this being said, it’s very important to be knowledgeable of what affects the population. Humans tend to feed on the opinions of others and being ignorant to what effects people could lead to the fall of mankind.
Stereotypes create such a huge impact on the lives of others. The
There are several different ways to create awareness and teach others of mental illness and how it works. Seventy-two surveys were taken in 14 countries in order to determine what was the best way to combat stigma. In the end, it was shown that there was two ways that ended up working the best. Physical contact with a person with mental illness was one of them. One can see how this would be beneficial, when someone actually tries to learn with an open mind, lots of preset mindsets can be changed, this is proven to work the best with adults. The other way was education. This way is more classroom-like setting. This includes learning statistics, symptoms, and reading personal narratives of people who have mental illness. This is an excellent way of learning about mental illness and not having prejudice towards people who have them. Education works best with teenagers, which can be expected due to the constant learning in other occasions such as school. While these are the best ways of teaching individuals about mental illness, stigma, and how to be stigma-free, these are not the only ways. Other ways include protests and social activism, groups such as NAMI fall into this category and other awareness organisations. There are several different ways to make people aware of mental illness and as previously mentioned it is crucial to make people aware. Though sometimes awareness isn’t enough to do something. Battling stigma is important and never being a bystander is something every person has the responsibility to not be. Remembering that one may not change the world, but helping one person might be changing their whole world and that is a step