A Guide on Dealing with Discrimination from being Diagnosed

A Guide on Dealing with Discrimination from being Diagnosed with a Mental Disorder

This is a guide on how to deal with sanism. This guide will focus more specifically on sanism towards Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia and any of the Axis II diagnoses (Schizoid Personality Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, etc. etc.).

First, let's identify examples of sanism. Sanism is the discrimination and/or oppression towards those with psychiatric diagnoses.

Signs of Sanism

Assumption that you are out of touch with reality/have no self awareness and treats and convinces you as such (gaslighting)

Assumption that since you are diagnosed with x you will commit y regardless.

Assumption that anything and everything you do or think revolves around your disorder.

Assumption that they as "sane" people are more aware of your situation and knows what is better for you than you do and will not let you speak for yourself.

Produces an "us vs them" mentality between the undiagnosed and the diagnosed.

Invalidates, minimizes or normalizes any levels of abuse you've been through because of your diagnoses.

Patronizing/Condescending behavior because they think your diagnoses makes you lower than them.

Scapegoating. Ex: "The treatment is not working because you don't want it too."; "You only feel that way because you have [insert psychiatric diagnoses here]"

Uses your diagnoses against you to their advantage else. Ex: A rapist accuses victim of lying about the sexual assault because he or she has a personality disorder that is known to enjoy manipulating for attention.

Places you in a double bind or a catch-22. Ex: Say symptoms of your disorder is feeling invalidated- uses claim to invalidate your opinions and your point of view.; Intentionally treats you in a way they know is hurtful but blames that you choose to feel that way when no one has a choice on how they feel

Dehumanizes and Antagonizes anyone with a psych disorder. Ex: people who avoid associating with you because they think your disorder means you are a danger.

Victim-Blaming Ex: Blames you that you made them treat you negatively when they are well in control of their own actions.

"Boxes" you in your diagnoses. They assume because you have a diagnoses you are incapable of living your life or making choices like a normal person without any direct proof you can't.

Uses psychiatric diagnoses in a derogatory or mocking way. Ex: "The weather has been so Bipolar."

Stereotypes those with psychiatric diagnoses. Ex:authors who writes that what made their antagonist murderers was that are is because they have schizophrenia or mentally ill parents.

Sees you as a label or diagnoses rather than a whole person

Bias confirmation; takes anything you say or do out of context to confirm to your diagnose or their perceived diagnoses of you.

Accuses you of stigmatizing Psychiatric treatment; or are a Scientologist, Anti-Psychiatry, Religious, etc.; or accuses you of inappropriate psychological behavior (projection, label you as crazy) if you express any level of skepticism, disagreement or unfortunate personal experience within the mental healthcare system. note: This is VERY common

There are MANY MANY MORE examples and it is by no means limited to what I have listed. For more info you can Google sanism, signs of an unhealthy or abusive therapist and how therapists abuse their clients. If you know of any more, you can reply with other examples of sanism.


How to Deal with Sanism.
These are advice for practical day to day living among the general public to avoid discrimination or from making it worse. This is like if you were in a situation trying to avoid backlash or you work with very bigoted and gossip-y people you can't avoid. This isn't applicable for more serious matters such as lawsuits, a mental health professional breaching confidentiality, institutional discrimination, or if you were to discuss this privately. These advices are not meant to condone sanism but how to deal with it on a daily basis from the public. Also, these are advices, you are not obliged to take them if you feel they won't help.

Don't turn it into a political argument.

Like any other field, Psychology and Psychiatry are politically loaded but not many people are aware of it and most refuse to be. If you encounter sanism don't try to counter it with political claims, they will see you as an preachy conspiracest who wears a tin foil hat and you will become a target of sanism.

Don't share any disagreement about the mental healthcare system /Don't share any negative experience you had within the mental healthcare system

Your opinions and experiences are real but sanists don't share those same sentiments. When you have a disagreement or a bad experience in mental healthcare they will immediately assumed that there is something wrong you instead and not them. Some people will also antagonize and accuse you of stigmatizing mental health treatment.

Try to brush it off.

Sanism hurts. Discrimination over something you didn't choose to have is both depressing and exhausting. Unfortunately it is something you will encounter as long as people refuse to discuss it and that will probably be for a long time. Don't waste energy on arrogant people if it can be helped, especially if they aren't important to you.

Keep your diagnoses private

This might be difficult to deal with. In an ideal world we shouldn't have to hide something that isn't something to be ashamed of but in reality majority of people don't think that way and the trouble is not worth the cost. It makes us a target of harassment and discrimination that we don't deserve.

Don't show that it bothers you/Don't argue

Showing that you are bothered by the judgments against those with a mental disorder will make people suspicious that you might have a disorder and they will not react well to it. Unethical therapists might see it as a symptom of a diagnoses rather than an actual concern.

Have confidence in yourself.

A lot about sanism is about underestimating the confidence of the individual. It is one thing to check yourself and your behavior every once in awhile like any other human being but it is another thing once you are second guessing yourself and your own judgement constantly. Don't be afraid to pay attention to your gut feelings. If something doesn't feel right odds are it is because there is something that isn't.

Reassure yourself you are not alone

Although there are not as many resources and support for people who are targets of sanism there are few where people are willing to speak up. You are not alone, there is nothing odd or weird about you.

Anonymously write about it or talk about it.

If writing or talking about something about it helps you remember to do it anonymously. If your identity is revealed with the disagreements you have about the mental healthcare system it will hinder your reputation and lifestyle.

Avoid websites and discussions that you know will be filled with sanism.

It's not worth it. You can't educate everyone and it will add more stress and distraught you don't need. The goal is to live among the public conflict-free as much as possible. Your time and energy is precious.

Don't be afraid to acknowledge to yourself you have feelings

How you cope with your feelings is different from having those feelings in the first place. When something hurts, it hurts and being stigmatized is no stroll in the park. Don't linger on to those emotions but don't belittle them either.

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So this is something I put together. Sorry if I repeated myself a few times or if there are grammatical errors. I only found very few sources that discusses and identifies what are inappropriate ways to treat someone with a psych disorder (I can count them on one hand) but nothing on how to deal with it. I also found that the majority of the public doesn't believe that discrimination against someone with a mental disorder exists and that it is overall for the good of the person which is dangerous and harmful. I found that this also means reporting such behavior becomes futile or long and tedious.


Please feel free to reply with any recommendations, changes, advice or any of your personal experience you've had that has helped you deal with the prejudice of being diagnosed with a mental disorder.

I think this is a great topic! Thanks for sharing!

I would like to add as a way to deal with sanism: sharing real life stories of recovery.

Cheze2 wrote:I think this is a great topic! Thanks for sharing!

I would like to add as a way to deal with sanism: sharing real life stories of recovery.

Thanks, it's a topic that I feel definitely needs to be discussed especially after seeing how some of the members reacts to any of the members who aren't 100% behind the ethics of psychiatry. Sanism is hard to avoid as it is seen as acceptable behavior by the majority of the public even among police officers and nurses. At the pace things are going sanism will stay for a long long time. It is a difficult thing to cope with and hopefully the guide can help lift the stress a bit.

Thank you so much for this!!!! I truly admire the work behind it. Its so well written.

Riccola wrote:Thank you so much for this!!!! I truly admire the work behind it. Its so well written.

Thanks Riccola and you're welcome.

I think there is a 'pecking order' but I don't know if discrimination is the right word. I wrote in another thread about how I think the perception of MH issues has come a long way over the decades and I believe this to be so, but I wont get into that again as it created some bad feelings I didn't mean to.

I think perception and how people will treat you does follow a certain ranking. There does exist a pecking order in the diagnosis heirarchy in terms of how it is viewed or accepted by the public. It is much better than it was but I agree there still exists prejudice.

I think there are three classes:

The Sexy Disorders:

Least likely to face discrimination. Most likely to get help. Most likely to be featured on reality TV programs . Things like Depression, Substance Abuse/Alcoholism, Anti Social Personality disorders, PTSD, etc..

Ambivalent Disorders :

Assorted Personality disorders and conditions that most people never heard of and very few therapists or psychiatrists specialize in the treatments. Most people's reaction to the diagnostic label would be, "huh?" Things like Schizoid disorder or many of the assorted personality and anxiety disorders, etc..I would call this the 'hidden background' of the MH world.

The 'Bad words'

Bipolar and Schizophrenia

These are the 'bad words' I think that still need work. They are at the very bottom of the totem pole and although better than in decades past, are likely to get you shunned rather than helped. People will be more likely to be afraid of you than anything else. I think the discrimination factor does currently exist here to a degree but it is not as severe as it once was but there is still a lot of work to be done. People do not think highly of these.

ThisIsMe wrote:I think there is a 'pecking order' but I don't know if discrimination is the right word. I wrote in another thread about how I think the perception of MH issues has come a long way over the decades and I believe this to be so, but I wont get into that again as it created some bad feelings I didn't mean to.

It is Discrimination and I do not appreciate you gaslighting any readers otherwise. You have proven before and now again you are extremely apathetic and dismissive about this subject and other people problems and it is a toxic and harmful behavior. Other members in this forum has confronted and called you out on it and you continue to stubbornly refuse to take any accountability for it by whining with "but I didn't mean too" "you guys just THINK that I am" type cop-outs. It does not matter if you mean to or not, you actions has consequences, you were made aware of it, own up to it. All you have proven to me this time is that you still refuse to learn anything, be productive and still have no problem to be dismissive of other people problems just as before.

To anyone who reads and wish to respond, let me make this clear:

This is NOT a place to debate what is discrimination and what is not


again,
This is NOT a place to debate what is discrimination and what is not

as the title reads, this is a GUIDE on dealing with discrimination from being diagnosed with a mental disorder; a safe place to discuss and offer support and advice to one another on how to deal with it NOT to stray off topic to debate the nature of it. If you are still confused read the title of this thread.

If you wish to have a discussion or debate on the separate topic of what is discrimination then make your own separate thread because for the nth time:

This is NOT a place to debate what is discrimination and what is not.

Ohh ever since my last psych ward stay. Everyone I know looks at me like a circuis monkey, talk about sanism.

I think what thisisme is trying to say is that those things he listed ARE discrimination. There is a lot of discrimination based on what type of diagnosis one is given from both within the mental health field and from outside the field.
It would fall under a lot of the things you listed including:

Falander wrote:Patronizing/Condescending behavior because they think your diagnoses makes you lower than them.

Falander wrote:Assumption that since you are diagnosed with x you will commit y regardless.