1. A small group that is highly stigmatized, despite its size, is people with chronic or “invisible” illness. Fibromyalgia is an example of one of the types of diseases that plague people in this category. As someone with Fibromyalgia, I have heard many hurtful stereotypes aimed at people, like me, who suffer with an illness that others can’t outwardly see. While I live every day with a diagnosed disease, for many people, that isn’t evidence enough that what I have is very real. I’ve been told I’m lazy, a drug addict, a liar, a hypochondriac, and even that I’m flat out crazy. I believe these stereotypes are rooted in the fact that people don’t really understand what they can’t see or feel for themselves. It seems implausible that someone can
From alcoholics, drug addicts, people of obesity, those carrying HIV/AIDS, or people of mental illness, stigma has caused discrimination and abuse to those characterized into these groups. Stereotyping, a form of stigma, is when something is labeled and linked with undesired characteristics. From the documentary, the audience learns that alcoholics and drug addicts are stereotyped in many parts of the community. In healthcare for example, addicts seeking help are only treated for addiction symptoms such as dehydration or anxiety, and not the underlying problem. An important part in in recovery is “the construction of a positive sense of self” (Hill, Leeming, 2014). Beverely Haberle, a former cancer patient in The Anonymous People, could not understand how she is offered support and outreach of treatment but those of addiction do not. The standard of care is found to be unequal do to public perception, and it must take those to speak out to make a differences in the stigma evolved around addiction. Until those attributes are addressed, many will suffer limited resources and unequal
through the illness not being identified as an illness, is a social stigma and inadequate
Musculoskeletal pain affects the bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons and nerves, its commonly but not always it is caused by physical injury, which can be widespread or localised in just one body part. Joint and muscle pain is the probably the number one symptom that prompts people to seek the help of health professionals like osteopaths.
Imagine waking up every morning stiff, all your muscles in your body soar, extremely tired and on the verge of exhaustion. The simple task of taking a shower and getting dressed makes you need to lay down for just a few minutes and rest. Your legs ache from a short walk up the stairs last night on your way to bed, as if you ran a marathon in your sleep, and your skin literally hurts to the touch of your clothes as they rub against you. Your blood pressure is up and you can feel the pain emanating from every part of your body. You can’t, for the life of you, find your keys as they hang from the keychain in your hand, because the pain and agitation you are feeling all over has clouded your mind. You are finding it difficult to even concentrate. Never mind the rest of the day ahead of you, that has not even started yet. Now imagine this every day, all day. It almost seems impossible to fathom something of this nature on a daily basis, but that is exactly what most people with fibromyalgia describe as a daily feeling. Some are much worse than that. Fibromyalgia is real, it is pain, and it does exist. Although fibromyalgia awareness has progressed thru advertising there is much more that can, and needs to be done to bring this to the forefront of the medical field and other organizations as a real diagnosis. More research and Government funding is direly needed and demands significant action from our National health agencies and United States Government in the form of grants, research, trials and various drug interaction and testing.
Physicians can only give palliative treatment for fibromyalgia. The primary goal of palliative care is to prevent secondary illnesses and alleviate patients’ suffering. What physicians offer are the so-called remedies even if they give prescription drugs. When a doctor prescribe analgesics, it does not mean this can ultimately cure the syndrome rather give temporarily relief to patients.
Hardaway India Ms. Olsen Anatomy and Physiology 20 May 2014 Fibromyalgia Fibromyalgia is a syndrome where a person has long-term, body pain and tenderness in their joints, muscles, tendons, and other soft tissue. This is a disorder that can also cause muscle pain and fatigue. Those with fibromyalgia have "tender points" in the body. Tender points are places on the neck, shoulders, back, hips, arms, and legs. These points will start to hurt when pressure is applied to them.
Fibromyalgia, also known as fibromyalgia syndrome and fibromyositis, is a chronic pain disorder that affects people physically, socially, and mentally. It can affect any area of the body and affects multiple areas. This disorder is most common in women, but it can also affect men and children of all ethnic groups. Most people are diagnosed between the ages of twenty and fifty. People who have Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, or Spinal Arthritis have an increased risk of developing Fibromyalgia. This disorder cannot be transmitted from person to person.
The age-related change that I am most concerned about developing is osteoporosis. The bones in our bodies are living tissue, and there is an ongoing process of replacement and reabsorption. When this process is interrupted in a way that the new bone doesn’t keep up with removing the old bone, osteoporosis can happen. Studies tell us that men and women are affected, but Caucasian and Asian women who are post menopause are at a higher risk of developing this bone disease. It causes bones to be brittle and weak so that even a small fall will cause a fracture. In more serious cases, this breaking can sometimes occur by a cough, or in bending over the wrong way.
Fibromyalgia is an extremely disabling condition associated with chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain and reduced pain thresholds (Wolfe et al., 2010)(Kelley et al., 2011). Observational studies have shown that over a 12 month period 25% of men and women surveyed over the age of 65 will consult a primary care physician for musculoskeletal pain (Jordan et al., 2010). Overall, between 46% and 80% of people over the age of 65 report experiencing pain on a daily basis and 15% of women and 10% of men over 50 report widespread musculoskeletal pain (Soldato et al., 2007; Thomas et al., 2004). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in xxxx that fibromyalgia patients generated $6000 per patient per year in healthcare costs where as another recent study of administrative claims found that fibromyalgia healthcare costs may exceed $18,000 per patient annually (Wolfe et al., 1997). In a population study of ten chronic diseases, fibromyalgia was highest ranked for healthcare not received in the previous year and in long-term disability, pain, and poor self-rated health by survey participants (Kasman and Badley, 2004).
Chronic illness can consist of a single or multiple illnesses that last over a period of time (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele, Tabacco, & Hansen, 2015). For this assignment, I will choose a chronic illness that could affect a patient in my nursing practice. I will discuss three ways I could promote the health of the patient and the family dealing with the chronic illness. I will end this discussion with a conclusion.
Stereotypes and stigmas promote a dangerous, single-minded perspective. These incomplete or half-truths are often far more duplicitous than lies, as they are more difficult to detect. When these perspectives remain unchecked, they can result in far-reaching, adverse consequences. It is the individual’s duty to refuse to perpetuate this single story perspective. Due to misinformation presented by the media, the stigma surrounding mental illness has created a discriminatory single story perspective; however, through honest and open dialogue, particularly with those suffering from these diseases, these stereotypes can be abolished.
For a very long time, mental health was a disease people would not dare speak about. The stigma associated with mental health meant that it was viewed as a curse or simply poor upbringing. Crazy, right? (Pardon the pun). Although it’s not seen as a curse by us in this generation any more, many people with mental health issues still have to face ignorance, prejudice and discrimination from our society just because of their lack of understanding or reluctance to try and understand. Be that as it may, these attitudes directly impact upon how and if people choose to seek help, making the negative and ignorant opinions and attitudes of others potentially dangerous to many individuals and the people around them.
Stigma is socially constructed and displayed through exclusion, blame, or devaluation of an individual or a group of individuals because of a negative social judgment towards these individual(s) (Cockerham 2014). Stigma comes in several forms, whether that be the stigmatization of one’s physical irregularities or mental irregularities. Whereas, Cockerham (2014) defines discrimination as when an individual or group of individuals unfairly and prejudicially behave towards certain forms of human-beings or objects. Discrimination can also take on many forms. People can discriminate against practically anything, but some of the most common forms are discrimination against one’s age, gender, sex, race, physical illness, and, of course, mental illness.
One way to fix these kinds of stereotypes is to inform the public of what having a mental illness is and the different kinds of mental illness there are. The general definition of mental illness is having a disorder that affects your behavior, mood and thinking. Examples of mental illness are depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and addictive behavior. These examples are well known mental illness but people have no idea the time anthropologist put in to study these things or even why they study these things. By studying current day connections between the pass on mental health can help better our understanding of the future. Knowing the sources of why our brain develops such characteristics will explain why people have curtain symptoms verse others. It also helps us understand more about the development of the disorder and how to maintain or treat
People with a mental illness are often feared and rejected by society. This occurs because of the stigma of mental illness. The stigma of mental illness causes the perception of individuals with mental illnesses to be viewed as being dangerous and insane. They are viewed and treated in a negative way. They are almost seen as being less of a human. The stigma affects the individual with a mental illness in such a cruel way. The individual cannot even seek help without the fear of being stigmatized by their loved ones or the general public. The stigma even leads to some individuals developing self-stigma. This means having a negative perception of one’s self, such as viewing one’s self as being dangerous. The worst part is that the effects of