Stigmatization of Mental Health.

The fear of rejection is very powerful in every society. The need to belong to someone else's way of living while taking care of your children is losing the chance of autonomy and taking your children's rights away.

Always focus on your children’s unique needs, never compare your children with each other or with other kids, and show them love and accept them for who they are.

Even for fully grown adults, rejection is one of the horrible challenges in life. So, just imagine what it feels like for children. So, accept your child's needs, and accept the challenges that come with them. Show unconditional love to your children. Love and acceptance are very important for children's mental wellbeing and also help to fight the stigma of mental health issues within the family.

Why do we follow the outdated treatment very blindly when it damages us?

Especially when we are raising children, why don’t we take action to learn more about our children's mental health struggles without comparing them with our abilities or others’ norms? As a parent, you need to get rid of the fear of others’ rejection and do what is best for your child's future. The stigma is still alive because of such a way of life; we are so scared to be rejected, so we also fear for our children if they get rejected. I have been there and I do understand that.

But is it more important than the well-being of someone? Just to think about it.

I have been witnessing that to avoid the prejudice and discrimination of people,  it is far too common for the immediate family to neglect their special needs children, to openly accept them, and to get them support from mental health professionals. Yes. It is all because of stigmatization. 

Avoiding mental health supports for children with special needs is very damaging to a child's better development and the quality of their childhood. 

Professionals could help the children develop and improve their skills.

What I want to say here, if you see your child struggling with developmental issues, there are so many facilities that are very much equipped to help children with their unique struggles, so please, don’t delay and don't waste your valuable time helping your child. Finding support and treatments is more important; it will do a great deal for your child. 

Mental health stigma has been there for a long time.

In the oldest generations, because of it, people with mental health disabilities and illnesses were forced to mask their struggles from society, even from their own families. Unless one person reaches the last stages of a mental health crisis, people will not seek help. 

By doing so, so many older generations have lost a quality of their life and have been rejected by their society. 

But that was then, and this is now. Now we had a chance but in the past, the knowledge about the mental health issues, with the oldest generation had been limited by their circumstances, and they had been forced by their various circumstances to lead a very painful and sad life as the result of that circumstances and their lack of understanding about mental health problems.

Put in mind that, as a result of that, they might be very avoidant of the topic of mental health problems regarding the idea of talking to their children or grandchildren for treatment. If they are rejecting, we need to help them to be aware of the updated mental health care without shaming them for their view or opinions. Healthy, productive conversation within a family is very important for bringing a change. Help is around you; seek help for what you need without shame.

Now, globally, we are gradually understanding and we are learning that mental issues are real, and also the mental functionality is very unique in each individual, even with the same categories of mental disability, people could act very differently because every brain functions uniquely. So, mental health professionals examine individuals objectively, and there are many treatments as well as medication plans to help most mental health issues, which improve the quality of a person’s life.

On this website, I will continue to share my knowledge with all of you, and so let us stop the stigmatization and open up and create a space to talk and discuss in our family units to help ourselves and each other.

For those who have access to the mental health services around them in their countries, I strongly encourage them to go ahead and educate themselves, share the knowledge with all, because mental health issues could affect everyone at any time.

Remember, stigma of mental health issues and the fear of discrimination lead to people with mental health problems not having a chance to get the necessary treatments that help them deal with and cope with the issues they are facing. Let us do our part to change that.

Love and peace to all.

Aimy Belay.