I thoroughly amazed my teenage son the other day with my keen insight, which is a worthwhile experience by itself. I would cherish it for a moment, but between you and me, it really wasn't that difficult.

It was a typical, mid-week evening in our home when the television remote happened to settle on a channel with some sort of action: unfortunate victims had been horribly mutilated, and their bodies were buried in an unusual, reoccurring pattern.

Less than a minute's viewing was enough for me to predict the show's conclusion. "Watch," I said to my son. "The detectives will go through all kinds of scenarios in order to find the culprit only to realize at the end that he is a deranged psychopath who could not control himself. They will figure it out, but it will be too late to keep him from killing himself."

My son's face showed unbelief. "How could you know that?"

I simply encouraged him to test my prediction. And, to his amazement, the show followed my words to the letter. There may be some future benefit in letting my son believe that his father has such rich, deep insight. However, I am sure the reader already knows my secret.

Hollywood refuses to let go of its reliable crutch of "stereotyping."

Old habits are hard to break, but that can be no excuse for maintaining old habits, especially if they are wrong. We may nurse bad habits along simply because we have not tried replacing them with something positive. It is these habits of stereotyping that must be examined, especially when they fly in the face of scientific evidence.

The National Association of Mental Illness (NAMI) issued a rebuff of the entertainment industry's pattern of showing "persons with brain disorders as being prone to violence," renaming these depictions more accurately as "hurtful stereotypes." NAMI then corrects the record. "The truth is that persons with brain disorders are more often the victims of violence"
(mental-health-today.com/stigma).

Perhaps the larger problem lies in the recognition that, at least in this instance, the writers are simply reflecting a widely held societal belief.

A recent survey by the National Mental Health Association, regarding people's understandings of the causes for mental illness, reveals a stronghold of incorrect beliefs. Seventy-one percent of those surveyed hold that mental illness is caused by some "emotional weakness;" 65% blame it on bad parenting, and 43% believe the individual caused the illness him or herself (dupagehealth.org).

The website for the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign states that "our society tends to not give the same acceptance to brain disorders as we do to other organ disorders, say, heart trouble. The stigma surrounding these misunderstandings can limit opportunities, it can stand in the way of a new job, it can increase feelings of loneliness, and it can cause many other unfortunate outcomes."

Lori Spears, a Substance Abuse Counselor for Community Counseling Services, reported she still hears others make the off-hand remark that "the people who come here are crazy." Spears explained how people can fear "that once they come in and get treatment, they will be labeled forever."

She described how this reaction to a stigma of receiving mental health treatment can lead some "not to realize how severe it is because they have hidden it for so long."

Spears then countered with her experience. "We see it every day. People get the tools and the skills they need, and then they move on." Yet, even at this point, we will not have put away the stereotyping of persons with mental illness until we replace misinformation with the truth, and with positive action.

Realizing that most mental illnesses, just like most physical illnesses, can be remedied with proper treatment, we can begin by making others aware of the harmful stereotypes, and we can encourage those needing help to access available resources.

"If you know someone that seems extremely upset, maybe someone who displays extreme mood changes, or maybe even you, yourself, feel emotionally out of place at times, the time is now to act, help, assist, notify, inform and get better" (nostigma.org/stigma).

Only with positive actions such as these can we hope to put away the stigma.