Writing a speech on stigma. need imput!

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Solace

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I need all the help I can get!

Usually my mom is my sounding board at the planning stages. But I am trying to
get her to talk with me about it and i'm getting mad at her for reading that
stupid news site and laughing about something while I was explaining what I wanted her feedback on.

And i hate that i'm acting differently about this homework agsinement than the
others. It's stigma. lol. I have to battle it even as I write this speech. I'm
getting snappy with her. FINE if you don't want to help me with it I don't even
care, I said. And she said she was gonna help me, and Isaid I was sorry, I just
was stressed out cuz this should have been done already...

Anyway!

So to open the speech i'm going to start it out asking for a show of hands on
various mental health issues starting with ones that are easy to admit. like
insomnia, and phobias. Everyone has had a week where they couldn't sleep.
Everyone is afraid of something liek spiders or public speaking.

Then I am going to move down the list to the more stigmatized, and observe and
comment on how people get more hesitant.



Any sugestions on things to add to my list? I need things that are easy to
admit, things that are in the middle, things that are taboo also.



And why should struggling, hurting people be afraid to get help because of how
it will look? How their family might see them?

Why should a man who has recovered from a breakdown after seeing some hard
things in the war, have to be ashamed?

--Solace
 
It might be easier to go to the forums themselves and see what they post thefore you can get information in general about those who suffer from certain maladys.

Stigmas are everywhere.
 
Solace said:
So to open the speech i'm going to start it out asking for a show of hands on
various mental health issues starting with ones that are easy to admit. like
insomnia, and phobias. Everyone has had a week where they couldn't sleep.
Everyone is afraid of something liek spiders or public speaking.

Then I am going to move down the list to the more stigmatized, and observe and
comment on how people get more hesitant.

Are there heavily stigmatized conditions that are as common as the fear of public speaking? In what you are describing i would imagine that you will have to be careful that the relative infrequency of a condition is not confused with a hesitancy to admit the condition, in your demonstration.

It does sound like a great topic.
 
I agree with Minus; the more heavily stigmatised conditions tend to be a lot less common (which, of course, contributes to the stigma).
 
interesting speech topic.

there is a new show in australia called Hungry Beast (http://hungrybeast.abc.net.au/), in the latest episode there was a story about treating clinically diagnosed pedophiliacs before they offend.

i would struggle to think of a more stigmatised 'condition' then this form of sexual dysfunction and of course it wouldn't work very well in your 'demonstration' but it is a facinating topic and an interesting story in the downloadable episode 7 (off the site)

apparently Germany has opened the worlds first government funded treatment centre for people with pedophilic tendencies. it's the first i have ever heard of anyone attempting to prevent the harm and abuse that children sustain in this world before it actually happens. the pathology of these individuals includes some of the more common conditions of depression, anxiety etc.

anyway it's a more-on-the-edge topic..

good luck with your speech.
 
funny, i'm sitting here, struggling to think of what circumstances a group of young people would meet that would entail having to come forward and thus face censure, mockery and perhaps even retribution.

Sexual orientation comes to mind, there is still a huge pressure on gay people to stay in the closet, especially for teenagers.

Racisim. Would anyone admit to hating Jews? Blacks? Muslims? I mean, how many of your friends will still make jokes about niggers, towelheads, kikes ? Seems to still be cool with teenagers, would you have the courage to stand up and defend a Jew or a Muslim?

What about Fat kids? How much ranking goes on in your school against that one pathetic poor fat kid? Would you have the courage to stand up and tell a crowd of your friends to stop it? Can you see the humanity in that kid and not his layers of fat? Would you date a really overweight guy? Would you befriend them, sit with them at lunch?

Is it still considered a stigma to have an abortion? I don't know. Back in my day it was. You did it practically sneaking thru back alleyways. You would NEVER confide in your parents.

Same thing with pregnancy....though again, doesn't seem to really apply anymore, sometimes pregnancy is a badge of honor almost in today's world. But I still see it as sad that some young girls, as young as 12 or 13, their goal is to get pregnant as fast as possible..have that little baby to love. It's almost like it makes them powerful, makes them valid in their community. But back in my day, girls would be sent away to homes for unwed mothers...or to live with a relative so none of the neighbors would find out.

Cheating, in school....is that a huge stigma? In my day, again, to be caught cheating would have been so embarassing, but again, do kids today see it as cool and something to try to get away with?

Sexual Activity is a badge of popularity today too.... the more sex you have seems to make you cooler. Is being a slut still a huge social stigma? Will a girl readily admit to bonking anyone and everyone or is there still a social stigma on a girl displaying her sexual prowess, just like any boy? It has always been OK for a boy to be sexual active as much as possible and he seems to go way up on the cool factor if he has a million conquests under his belt - but I doubt it is for a girl.

I don't know if you are still in high school, I am thinking you are by the way you write. Is it way uncool for a guy to admit to still kissing his mom goodnight? Will a guy kiss his mom goodbye in front of his friends? Is that evidence that he is a whuss or a "pussy", is that a mockable offence these days?

What else can teenagers hide because for others to find out would subject them to extreme ridicule???? Would they openly stand up for a gay kid being harassed or ridiculed? Could you stand it if everyone thought it was so cool to beat up on some gay kid out behind the gym, but you felt it was wrong and so you stepped in to stop the harassment.... how much courage would that take? Would they think YOU were gay too?

So many things that were just taboo in my youth and would be hidden, like tattoos, drug use, sexual activity, today are just normal things kids do all the time.

I think you just have to think of all the circumstances you and your buddies would gang up on someone and rank on them if they did a certain thing. And that depends hugely sometimes on where you are living. If you are in the deep south, bible belt country, would you admit to certain beliefs that would go against the grain of your community?
 
ABOLISH THE EIGHTH SIN.



"Have you ever confused a dream with life? or stolen something when you have the
cash? have you ever been blue, or thought your train was moving while it was
still? maybe I was just crazy. maybe it was the 60s. Or maybe I was just a girl,
interrupted."

From the Motion Picture Girl, Interrupted, 1999.

Insomnia and phobias are two things everybody deals with. Who hasn't laid in bed
late at night, staring at the ceiling, thinking, why am I not sleeping yet?

And everyone is afraid of something. Like, say... public speaking. Why is it
socially acceptable to be afraid of public speaking, when it's weird to be
afraid of something random like, I don't know, rubber bands. Public speaking
isn't dangerous anymore, not really. Rubber bands might actually be more
dangerous. It's not like we live in George Witfield's day where people used to
throw pieces of dead cat at the orator if they didn't like what they were
saying! Honestly, the things society accepts doesn't make sense sometimes. Dead
cat!

And if you haven't been capsized by grief, depression or anxiety, chances are
you will someday. But in the meantime we act like we're immune.

Have you ever had so much anger flood your veins you were afraid to let it
loose? Perhaps you felt it was safer to turn it on yourself.

Problems like alcoholism and eating disorders are aided by gravity, and most of
the people in the therapist's office were regular people once, and most still
are.

All these are mental health issues. Just because you experience these things
does not make you mentally ill, but sometimes people act like it. They also act
like it's contagious, like you're going to sneeze your paranoia all over them.

Everyone has problems. Some are just more obvious than others. If someone has a
few quirks, maybe they're a little OCD, and life goes on without too much
trouble, whatever. People should be allowed to be themselves.

But if people are hurting... why should they feel like they can't ask for help?
Isn't that what friends are for? I'm not saying you have to befriend that old
man down the street who sells rat poison, but maybe you could just look your
friend or family member in the eye and let them know you mean the words "How are
you?"

When we're asked this question... something keeps a lot of people from being
honest when we're asked.

It's called the Eighth Sin. It's the last and worst of the seven deadly sins,
and it's the sin of weakness, also known as the sin of expression. Admitting
weakness is shocking and offensive. Only time can forgive you. Conformity is the
safest thing. The eighth sin is why we learn, eventually, not to cry in front of
others.

Sometimes people are afraid of the mentally ill. But is everyone who struggles
dangerous? Of course not! Those with severe mental illness are the bravest
people I know. The things they get up every morning and face each day is
overwhelming for the rest of us to think about. They are anything but weak.

Would you be able to handle not knowing if what you heard or saw was real?
Wondering when your native language would leave you, and you would be unable to
think or communicate. What about breaking into tears of frustration over things
other people can do with apparent ease? What if you were startled by every noise
above a certain decimal?

Then imagine people looking down on you on top of all that, as if the illness
isn't bad enough.

Or maybe people try to tell you you're fine, when somewhere inside you know that
you're not, and you want to improve. It's the most frustrating feeling.

The problem is that of the eighth sin.

When people dare to talk about how they feel, most of the time they just want to
be heard and understood. They aren't looking for pity they're looking for
affirmation. Yes, life can be hard. yes, it's worth it.

The eighth Sin. Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, what's wrong with
always showing your strong side?

---
pause
---

Only 1 in ten people with eating disorders receive treatment.

Only 50% of those ever report being cured.

and the last and most startling statistic:
A woman with anorexia is 12 times more likely to DIE than a woman her age
without anorexia.

What if.... we weren't afraid to talk about things like eating disorders or
depression? What if it was caught sooner? What if, in doing so, the recovery
time could be significantly reduced?

What if... all this is within reach if we just

Abolish the Eighth Sin.

-end-

Well, I dunno if anyone cares to see it but I did all that work to write it an then type it up :p thought I should post it more than one place.

And I wrote it without having read the rest of these replies heh, but thanks for your time!
 

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