Mental health stigma: where's my cheesecake?

There's a one in eight chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer in the average woman's lifetime. There's a one in 10 chance of developing depression. Yet we're far more likely to openly talk about one than the other. In a guest post, Tania Browne complains bitterly about her lack of complimentary baked goodsI once had a friend who was almost suffocated by cheesecake. She was a nice woman let's call her Penny. I met her in a hospital, as you do. Penny was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and let's just say she was a little bit pissed off with it. Not the breast cancer, but the way she had become "Poor Penny with Breast Cancer How Tragic She's Only 38, You Know". Penny felt that everything interesting about her had been stolen. She was no longer a clever woman who knew a lot about how ants form orderly societies by leaving chemical trails for each other, or how to get the best deal on a new washing machine. Cancer became a definition of who Penny was. It had become quite literally the first thing people would ask her about. Not her opinion of Desperate Housewives, not the life cycle of caterpillars or any number of other interesting things she knew about. Just cancer. How her treatment was going, whether she looked "well on it" or "not so great" and because they could offer her nothing else constructive, they gave her food to show they cared. It started with a few casseroles for the slow cooker when she had chemo days, and escalated to...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Tags: Psychology Science Depression Mental health Society & wellbeing Life and style Source Type: news