Do 'mental health patient' halloween costumes fuel stigma?

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I know. Weather or not there can be a positive from it you still have to wonder how it came about. So many people must be involved in things like that and nobody thought "hey, isn't this maybe just a bit insensitive?"? I guess it starts as just a scary costume or maybe based on a film caracter and then some moron adds the name? Still who would pass off on that?!

I personally think it's a bit wierd how things that are in some ways so simmilar can (as far as my experience goes) be treated so differently. I don't think anybody would consider an ADHD or Downs Syndrome costume yet another mental problem can be so easily mocked? Is it cos special needs is more associated with children and you can't mock kids or what? Maybe special needs are permanent but mh issues are just being weak about something?
I'm far more willing to open up about my ADD or Dyslexia than any mh problems because I feel they will be more understood, and I have noticed schools and universities making measures for special needs far more than mh issues, but I don't see that they're all that different. I dunno. But I hope mh problems start to get the same sort of improvement as I think i'm seeing for special needs. I'm not sure if it's just because i'm more interested now, but i think i'm seeing more about mh issues around so hopefully that's the start of some proper change.

Yeah, exactly. Why are MH problems considered mockable territory when other health problems aren't in the same way? I think it's like a vicious circle. The stigma that exists to begin with prompts this kind of response, in make costume and joke of it. The costume and jokes then prompts addition negative stigma. I'm glad people fought back though, and they were no longer offered for sale. It's just a massive shame they went on sale in the first place

Reply 21

Kindred

Original post by FireFreezer77

That makes me so angry!
I really wish there was more awareness for Mental Illnesses! They are a major thing and they dont make us crazy!
We dont go around murdering people, we dont go around with knives or cleavers etc, we dont go around causing disruptions!
Who on earth thought it was a good idea to allow that to happen! Heck, who even thought it was a good idea in the ****ing first place!
Total *******s!

OCD is a big one for me. I hear jokes about it on a daily basis! It's not a ****ing joke (I suffer from it) and its a serious illness!
People who joke about it deserve to experience what we go through on a daily basis!
They wouldn't be joking afterwards!

All this does is show to people that Mental Illnesses are nothing major. And that everyone who has them are totally crazy! This angers me so much!
We are no different to any others and as said in the OP, we are more likely to be abused when we tell people about it. It sucks!
Something needs to be done and done now!
This cannot continue!

Argh this makes me so angry! :angry:

Maybe the costume should come with a knife in the back to show how society can treat people with mh problems. :unimpressed:

The only scary thing baout mh problems in most cases is having it (or being close to somebody who does).

I find it sadly ammusing how so many people will willingly identify as OCD and yet not know what it actually is. There was a talk show that had an "OCD guest" at one point who had no diagnosis and quite clearly didn't have OCD. They said how it helped them and they liked it because it made the more productive. That's having an obsessive personality maybe, but on of the actual factors in diagnosing OCD is how bad it makes the person feel. There's so much talk about OCD at the moment. Why can't it be actual decent talk instead of that rubbish?!

Honestly this sort of thing turns me into such a synical person. I uesed to take people's word for things and think they knew what they were talking about, but now i'm suspicious of everybody.

It's like on the one hand mental illness is a cool new statement and then on the other they'll stab you and eat you body. Both are so far wrong! :argh:

Reply 22

Kindred

Original post by chelseadagg3r

I don't think his sort of fighting back would have happened a few years ago and I certinally don't think it would have had such a successful response. It gives me a bit of hope that maybe things are starting to change and maybe soon we'll have a mental health revolution! Okay so maybe it won't be quite so dramatic, but I honestly do think that all this chaos is a sign of something greater happening.
I think maybe society is finally getting ready to break that vicious cycle. Just think, all those impressionable kids are getting the stigma encouraging costumes, but they are also getting the reaction that says it's not okay. Hopefully that is the part that will stick.

Reply 23

Sabertooth

I could shave my head and wear really baggy clothes and say I'm a cancer patient.
Only I won't, because that would be a mega dick-move.

I think these "mental health patient" costumes are pretty distasteful. As has already been mentioned in this thread, people (most people) would find a down-syndrome costume or cancer patient costume inappropriate, you definitely wouldn't find one in the biggest supermarkets in the UK. But for some reason mental health is fair game and I don't understand this. I do actually think it adds to the stigma as mental illnesses seem like something that it's ok to make fun of. This increased stigma probably also has the effect of people thinking that mental illness is no big deal and so people who suffer from it are attention seeking: trying to be "cool". Which is further damaging and alienating for people with mental health problems.

Reply 24

bones-mccoy

Original post by Kindred

I think it depends on how you look at it. I like to think that people view severe and very dangerous mh problems like sociopathy etc in a different area to more "mundane" things like schizofrenia, bipolar, depression. Honestly though I think a lot of people don't and they will view any mh problem as a dangerous thing and anybody with one as crazy.

I think theres a limit to how much the costumes affect mindsets compared to how mindsets affect costumes, in adults at least. If somebody already has a positive attitude towards it I don't imagine a costume could change their mind, but it could reinforce less positive ideas. I also think there is a lot more than just costumes that affect how people view mh conditions, including other halloween related things- scary movies etc- and everyday things like news coverage. I think people are really keen to find a reason they couldn't do something horrible or would be able to know who is a criminal and who isn't so they focus a lot on the mh aspect. It's like the idea of "stranger danger" distracting from the fact that most kidnappings are by somebody known to the child and family. It just makes it a lot easier to cope with if yo blame something like that.

The biggest problem I have with halloween related stigma is it's audience- children and teenagers. They are the people who haven't formed their opinions yet and are still really suseptible to influences like this. I'm ashamed to say that when I was younger I would have probably viewed people with just about anybody with a mh problem as crazy. I hardly read or watched the news so that influence for me will have come from things like this and my interactions with other people.

I do have a real issue with people thinking mh sufferers are dangerous, when infact they are much more likely to be a danger to themselves. Actually i've found mh sufferers to be some of the most sympathetic and understanding people I know. I think people are encouraged to fear it and that leads to people not wanting to deal with sufferers nd also sufferers not wanting to accept things or open up to people.

The thing with halloween is it jumps at any steryotype it can find. I think it is more of an indicator of already held view than I pioneerer of those views. If these costumes were removed I don't think it would actually help much on the big scale. It is certinally insensitive and in very poor taste at the least though.

I think a far bigger issue is the lack of willingness to open up about it. People are afraid to discuss the big issues and that just means they grow. Nobody knows what mh problems are because they are afraid to ask- either because they'll be murdered in cold blood (HA!) or they will offend some poor vulnerable soul. People need to brave the awkward for a while so they can actually learn something and then we might actually be able to make some progress.

That's super messy and i'm sure i've missed out a bunch of things, but basically: Yes costumes are bad and potray a negative steriotype, but no, changing it wouldn't make any real difference. It's a symptom more than a problem of it's own.

This is exactly it. It's the younger generation that we need to educate and inform, it's essential that they feel able to open up and speak about mental health issues.

Reply 25

Barbastelle

It's so upsetting that these companies could do something like this! Who could possibly have thought that this would be a good idea?

Putting 'mental health patient' costumes next to the werewolf costumes and the Frankenstein's monster costumes is pretty much telling the world that your company believes people who are suffering from mental health issues aren't people anymore, but monsters of whom we should be afraid. Promoting this sort of attitude (especially around children, who tend to be the group that most ardently partake in Hallowe'en, especially the dress-up aspect), is just unacceptable. Their parents could have suffered mental health issues in the past (or still be suffering), and those parents might then have to try and dissuade a child who wants that costume because they think it 'looks cool'. Putting this view of mental health into their minds while they're still children is also going to be damaging later on if they end up suffering from poor mental health and recall that society views them as monsters.