If mental health was instead commonly referred to as 'brain health'...

It says your OP is from 1970. That's weird

...do you think this would help to end stigmatisation and prejudice once and for all?

I think the word 'mental' is causing a lot of the problems, in all honesty.

Because the stigma comes from misunderstanding, ignorance and prejudice about different diagnoses. As well as the media's portrayal of mentally ill people as dangerous killers - not only when reporting news but horror movies where the murderer is supposed mentally ill and wearing a strait-jacket and video games set in asylums where the dead patients come back to haunt you. It's when people dress up as a 'mental patient' for Halloween. It's when people used 'psychotic' to mean dangerous, 'psychopath' to mean murderer and 'depressed' to mean sad. It's people who say they are 'a bit OCD' when they mean that they like to have their DVDs in alphabetical order so they can find the one they want quickly. Stigma is when people think that my mental illnesses are something that I can get over through pure willpower. It's when people say 'commit suicide' rather than 'complete suicide' or 'die by suicide'. It's when people say suicide is selfish. It's when people say self-harming is 'attention-seeking' without understanding why people self-harm and that actually if you're struggling with your mental health you might not know how to reach out to someone and that if someone is 'attention-seeking' (and not all self-harmers are) then that isn't automatically a reason to ignore their suffering.

Stigma is all this and much more. A 'rebrand' won't get rid of this. The only way to decrease stigma is to talk more and force people to understand.

'Brain health' sounds a little ridiculous - they aren't actually classed as neurological conditions as they aren't directly linked to damage of the CNS (central nervous system) however 'psychiatric illness' could be an alternative to 'mental disorders'.

However, as someone else mentioned, the stigma will just move to the new term. What we really need to tackle is the stigma itself through education. People need to know the difference between feeling depressed and suffering from clinical depression; teen culture needs to stop glamorising and romantisising self-harm and suicidal thoughts; people need to know how to look after their own mental and emotional health the same as they do for their physical health. Only then will the stigma lose its power.

Therefore, in the same way as you could stigmatise the word 'brain' in a negative way (mental, psychotic, madman, loony etc.), you'd also have to stigmatise the word 'brain' in a positive way (genius, geek/nerd etc.)

All of this. Especially about the need to stop romanticising it. The other day, a girl in my sixth form was like, "I love things to do with mental illnesses, they're so cool." like yeah totally, being completely debilitated by your own mental health is just SOOOO COOL. smh

Because the stigma comes from misunderstanding, ignorance and prejudice about different diagnoses. As well as the media's portrayal of mentally ill people as dangerous killers - not only when reporting news but horror movies where the murderer is supposed mentally ill and wearing a strait-jacket and video games set in asylums where the dead patients come back to haunt you. It's when people dress up as a 'mental patient' for Halloween. It's when people used 'psychotic' to mean dangerous, 'psychopath' to mean murderer and 'depressed' to mean sad. It's people who say they are 'a bit OCD' when they mean that they like to have their DVDs in alphabetical order so they can find the one they want quickly. Stigma is when people think that my mental illnesses are something that I can get over through pure willpower. It's when people say 'commit suicide' rather than 'complete suicide' or 'die by suicide'. It's when people say suicide is selfish. It's when people say self-harming is 'attention-seeking' without understanding why people self-harm and that actually if you're struggling with your mental health you might not know how to reach out to someone and that if someone is 'attention-seeking' (and not all self-harmers are) then that isn't automatically a reason to ignore their suffering.

Stigma is all this and much more. A 'rebrand' won't get rid of this. The only way to decrease stigma is to talk more and force people to understand.

Oh my life, yes! People think it's so trendy to self-harm it makes me so angry - it's like, do you think people want to have to hurt themselves to cope with daily life?? It doesn't make you 'complicated' or 'mature', it means that you're ill - smh

uh also people that make out like you're lucky for missing school or whatever like 'hey I'd love to spend the day in bed!!' - yeah I just LOVE getting migraines or being to depressed to actually live my life!!! it's my favourite thing ever!!!

uhhhhh these people need to be educated asap

My school counsellor wouldn't take me seriously about my self harm and suicide attempts because apparently so many girls had gone to her about anxiety, depression, and self harming, and it turned out they were just saying stuff so they could get special treatment, like extra time in exams

My school counsellor wouldn't take me seriously about my self harm and suicide attempts because apparently so many girls had gone to her about anxiety, depression, and self harming, and it turned out they were just saying stuff so they could get special treatment, like extra time in exams

that is the most ridiculous thing I have heard all day, suicide should be taken way more seriously than that - they're really going to risk someone's life because of some attention-seeking clowns? This is exactly why I never went through my school for counselling

hope you do manage to get the help you need

Brain health would cover stuff like neurological illnesses too, which isn't exactly the same as psychological illnesses.

I say this as someone has suffered from mental illness btw

That is truly lamentable. I am so very sorry. I have added you to my shrine list.

they cared waaay too much about their own reputation than about their students ugh

And thank you! I hope you've found the best help, too. as cheesy as it sounds, we just need to remember to never give up hope that things will get better

yeah definitely, it's the only way to stop yourself feeling completely overwhelmed and helpless, to remember that it can get better I'm on my way to getting help but the waiting lists for everything are so long

Saying you have brain problems infers that there is something medically wrong with you. Mental problems on the other hand infer something that isn't physical and can therefore be fixed with time.