| In some social circles bragging about your psychiatrist/analyst/psychologist/etc carries status just as much as any other service provider - doctors of any kind, brand of car (and dealer), where your kids go to school, where you get your hair done, etc. Throughout my life when I've told someone I have depression it's been remarkable just how many times people have responded (almost enthusiastically) with "so do I!". Anecdotally many people I know have been given a prescription for a "general-practitioner-picks-an-SSRI" at some point in their life. They then believe they have/had depression because they take/took an anti-depressant medication. Unfortunately for me when I describe my feelings and experiences in every case (so far) the other person with depression responds with something along the lines of "Wow, that's not nearly the same thing. I guess I didn't really have depression. I'm sorry." In virtually all of these anecdotal cases I believe them to be right. Depending on how much I probe it's often pretty easy to discover they were sad because they should have been - death of a loved one, negative changes in living conditions, etc. From a diagnostic standpoint this has been very controversial: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4204469/ More than likely they (and many people diagnosed with "depression" and given anti-depressants) don't have depression. They have a general practitioner with 2300 patients who can spend 12 minutes with each of them once a year. If someone comes in and complains/mentions/hints at a few key words for which there is a low cost, relatively low side effect profile drug, the standard approach for these physicians is to prescribe $DRUG and shuffle on to the next patient. At least 80% of anti-depressant medications are not prescribed by psychiatrists to people that don't have a diagnosis of depression: https://psychcentral.com/news/2011/08/08/more-antidepressant... Severe mental illness (of any kind) to the point of hospitalization absolutely carries stigma. In 2018 it's still often referred to as the "loony bin", "nut house", etc. Here's an interesting experiment - reference a hospital stay to a group of people for a physical ailment. Then, replace "I had back surgery" with "I was suicidal" and witness the range of reactions, awkwardness, judgment, etc for the latter. Show someone razor marks from self-mutilation or a suicide attempt the way you might show off any other scar (from injury, surgery, etc). I assure you, in the vast majority of cases, you will get a different reaction. That's stigma. I should also add that, similar to my anecdotal experiences above, various stays in various mental hospitals has shown me depression and mental illness that can't possibly be described as other than "something out of a movie". Entire units of patients with various mental illnesses to the point of being completely non-verbal and unable to function, catatonic, etc. Patients with self-mutilation marks covering their bodies to the point where they were cutting on top of existing scars. Group sessions with patients that describe horrors and experiences in their lives that Hollywood couldn't come up with. There are no upper or lower ranges to what people can experience, it's always only relative to the individual and empathy can only take you so far without having experienced something yourself. |