According to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, “discrimination” is when it is selected by excluding or giving unequal treatment to a person or community for reasons of race, religion, politics, sex, physical or mental condition. It is true that all of them affect the individual and denigrate him personally, but the one that can do the most damage is discrimination for suffering from a mental condition, since the person is already suffering internally the attacks of enduring a mental illness, this treatment It can exponentially aggravate the disorder or illness that is already being suffered.
Mental health is something that the majority of the population despises and to which very little attention is given, perhaps because it is an invisible enemy and its results are only shown when it has advanced, deteriorating the person's mental balance and affecting everything. their environment, mainly loved ones and close friends.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in 4 people in the world suffers from a mental disorder at some point in their lives, which represents 25% of the total world population, this amount It will depend on the region and the country, being more pronounced in large cities for obvious reasons. Now, this data does not specify whether it was obtained through a survey or through the records held of people who have been treated by mental health professionals, which if so, this statistic would be far below the real number of the population that suffers at some point from a mental disorder, since not everyone goes to professionals to be treated for a mental illness and worse still, not everyone knows that they suffer from it and those who know or are aware of their condition , they avoid going to consultation.
When trying to analyze the data obtained, it is observed that the statistics are somewhat low for the number of people who are affected by a mental disorder; It is possible that it has happened to you that, when talking to an acquaintance, family member or group of friends, someone has some behavior that attracts attention, to a greater or lesser extent, or it simply seems that when talking with them there are certain topics. that make them uncomfortable and they become defensive. It is in these moments that one realizes that the vast majority of us suffer from some mental disorder in some way, which leads us to ask ourselves the following question:
WHY PEOPLE DON'T GO TO THERAPY?
Responses can be several, among which we can mention: lack of access to the service, lack of financial resources to cover the costs of a consultation or simply to avoid being discriminated against.
In a study carried out by the University of Barcelona, 80% of people with a mental disorder suffer discrimination, although the study focuses on the population suffering from a mental disorder in the City of Catalonia, it provides a small sample of what is could wait in the rest of the country and the world in general. Within the data provided by the study, it was found that the main discriminatory behaviors were:
Over protection and control 51.6%
Contempt, ridicule or coercion 47.4%
Avoidance and rejection 50.7%
Physical or sexual assaults 11.9%
The environments where discrimination was present were: in the family, with friends, in health services, at work, within the couple and in the educational field.
In summary, in all those places that are frequented, sadly sometimes the environment in which those affected develop worsens the conditions, because if to the mental disorder suffered we add the rejection by the group where the individual develops, the Symptoms worsen at an exponential level.
The stigma that society has about all those people who suffer from a mental disorder is motivated, in part, by the misinformation that exists in this regard and how little the overall health of the person is valued.
The stereotype of the individual who suffers from a disorder and the discrimination that it generates are the main reasons why most people avoid talking about the subject or simply refuse to recognize that they suffer from a psychological condition, stigmatizing the fact. that everyone who goes to therapy will be seen and classified as mentally ill, being singled out and labeled by their social circle.
However, not all is lost and not all is bad news, from our position, whatever it may be, we can help those who suffer or have a disorder, and this can be by avoiding discrimination of any kind, finding out about what type of psychological condition is what one suffers from and find out what would be the best way to help the person who suffers from it, thus being part of the solution and not the problem.
Thanks for your reading.
Tu espacio mental
Reference:
Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (2016). Un 80% de las personas con trastorno mental sufre discriminación. https://www.uab.cat/web/sala-de-prensa/detalle-noticia/un-80-de-las-personas-con-trastorno-mental-sufre-discriminacion-1345667994339.html?noticiaid=1345711812130
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