Confusing Personality Traits, Feelings and Mental Disorders

I’m an introvert, and it is not the same as being shy. Shyness is a feeling, it’s an expression. Anyone can be shy and one can stop being shy. But telling an introvert to stop being an introvert, is like telling a gay to stop being gay. It’s not a choice, it’s just what we are. So no, not all introverts are shy, and neither do all introverts have social anxiety, because introversion is not a mental disorder either. Personally, I no longer have social anxiety, but I’m still an introvert. Extraverts often think introverts hate being in social situations or hate partying and that is simply not true. Not every introvert doesn’t like to party, they simply cannot do it for a long period of time, and not every introvert hates talking to people, they simply prefer talking in a smaller circle. While introversion is a personality trait, shyness is a feeling of tension when you’re in an uncomfortable position, it is however no where to close to social anxiety.

It might be confusing for some to differentiate between the three; introversion, shyness and social anxiety, because they seem to have a few similar traits, but they are simply not the same. While telling an introvert not be shy is something you should not be doing, telling someone with social anxiety to not be shy is worse. When a person with social anxiety tells you that they don’t want to talk to someone, it’s really not so much of a “don’t want to” but a “can’t do so” because they are mentally unable to do said thing. This is something not many understand, and the worst thing you can do after that, is to force them into the situation.

Having said that, social anxiety is not something one chooses, because it is after all a mental disorder, and nobody would want to have a mental disorder. Yet, we have people who romanticise mental disorders or use them as adjectives. The same way an introvert doesn’t necessarily have social anxiety, someone who prefers being tidy and clean doesn’t have OCD unless they have been diagnosed by it. If you are feeling sad, it doesn’t mean that you are under depression. These are mental disorders, not adjectives and not personality traits, but people use them on a daily basis to describe themselves or each other. By doing so, you are disrespecting someone who has indeed been diagnosed by said mental disorder.

There is a need for us to stop using these words with convenience, and for that, there is a need for people to start educating themselves about it. When we stop believing what we hear, we will have more people understanding that having a mental disorder is not something to be taken lightly. If you have a friend who’s an introvert, ask them what introversion really is. Before using terms like “OCD” and “depression”, find out what these terms actually mean. Read about it, the more you read, the better. You can never get too much information.

Media’s Role in the Stigma

There is a stigma put on mental illness and the reason behind it is the lack of understanding. The media often indulges in presenting mental illness in a rather stereotypical manner, often relating it to crime stories and criminals as such. One in six people in Singapore suffer from some kind of mental illness, so you can only imagine how this stigmatising would be affecting so many people in our country. The media is a primary source of information, then what should its role be in presenting mental illness?

The inaccuracy of relating mental illness to violence and crime seems to be quite a common trend. Journalists often relate a criminal’s deed to their mental health. Unless a qualified professional has verified the illness, there is no reason for the inclusion of words like “psycho” or “crazy” in the headlines or by-lines of a news article. Although studies do suggest a link between violence and mental illness, the link between the two is only present in merely 1% of people with a mental illness alone. The vast majority of people with mental illness give no signs of violent behaviour. Of course, patients with a dual diagnosis of a mental illness and substance use have a higher risk of behaving violently, but a person with a mental illness alone poses a greater danger to himself than anyone else. This once again proves how commercial media gives you inaccurate and incomplete information.

Here’s how journalists should be reporting on mental illness:
– When specifically talking about a particular illness, its signs, symptoms, treatments etc.
– When it involves a person living with mental illness, and it is proven that he is. e.g crime, celebrity (provided there isn’t a breach of privacy).
– When mental illness is a related factor. e.g mental health care, suicide.

Suicide is closely related to mental illness and it holds a stigma to it just as well as mental illness does. Someone who attempts to take their own life is often deemed as “weak” to the world, and that’s because people fail to understand the co-relation between suicide and mental illness. One does not take their own life because they are weak, they do so because they are at an emotionally and mentally unstable point of their lives. Condemning someone for attempting to take their life is the same as condemning someone with a mental illness. Depression, the most commonly found mental illness, is the number one cause of suicide. Therefore, reporting on suicide requires the upmost level of sensitivity. Research suggests that media coverage of suicide is linked to the increase in suicide rates. This often occurs when a media report on suicide is sensationalised by providing information on exactly how it happened by including descriptive diagrams of the occurrence. It is important to consider the effect such reports can have on a mentally unstable person. If irresponsible reporting can cause an increase in suicide rates, I don’t see why responsible reporting won’t reduce these rates.

While the media has its fair share to contribute to this, we, as viewers too, need to change the way we look at mental illness and suicide. As much as we blame the media for influencing us on the way we think, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we should let it influence us to an extent where we stop thinking for ourselves. We, too, are to be blamed for the contribution in the rise of this stigma placed on such issues because we, ourselves are responsible for our thoughts. So the next time we see a news report on mental illness or suicide, let’s think before playing a part in reinforcing this incoherent stigma.