Stigma and Mental Health
Introduction When it comes to psychiatry and mental health, stigma starts right away when you even mention anything around it. For me, I felt it when I informed my parents that I want to pursue Psychiatry as my post-graduation speciality. My mother supported me wholeheartedly but my father would occasionally voice his dissent with comments like ‘Medicine has better options’, ‘Pediatrics is a lucrative branch’ which I would politely counter with affirmative remarks without going into any further arguments. However, the harshest comments and opinions were made by some so-called well-wishers who would lash out their disappointments with ridiculous notions like if you treat mad people, you will become mad too or right way calling me mad people’s doctor or even mad doctor (because in their understanding I was mad to take psychiatry). Nevertheless, I did persevere and it’s been more than a decade for me in psychiatry, interacting with and treating hundreds of patients, l...