Breaking The Spell of Mental Health Stigma

We like to pretend stigma is an individual problem — a few “bad apples” who say the wrong thing. But stigma is not personal. It’s a script. A spell. A piece of societal conditioning so deeply rehearsed that people repeat it without even knowing they’re actors in the play.

I can feel it when I walk into a room. It’s there in the air — an energetic fog that says: people with mental health conditions are less than, unreliable, dangerous, to be pitied, to be avoided. No one even has to say the words. The thought-form has already done the talking.

Where does it come from?

Generations of psychiatry defining human difference as disorder. Headlines screaming about “madness” and “monsters.” Families whispering about breakdowns instead of speaking plainly. Workplaces that quietly close doors instead of opening conversations. Schools teaching resilience as “fitting in,” not as real inner strength. Over time, all of this calcifies into one great unspoken rule: there’s something wrong with you if you don’t stay inside the lines.

The cost of this conditioning is enormous. For those of us on the receiving end, it breeds shame, silence, self-doubt. We internalise the script and call it our identity. For society, the cost is just as high — the wisdom and creativity of lived experience gets muted, sidelined, and lost. A whole dimension of what it means to be human gets filtered out.

But here’s the truth: stigma isn’t real. It’s rehearsed. It’s a play we’ve all been cast in without auditioning. And the moment you see that, you don’t have to keep performing.

You can start noticing the lines when they come up — “they can’t cope,” “they’re unstable,” “that’s too much” — and remember: this is the script, not reality. You can choose not to agree. You can step outside the play.

Because mental health isn’t a mark of shame. It’s part of being human. And stigma isn’t a fact — it’s conditioning. Once you see the rehearsal, you can refuse the role.