FIGHT THE STIGMA ON MENTAL ILLNESS

Fighting the Stigma on Mental Illness:

Writing and Publishing an Article Accusing Certain Support Groups of Promoting Self Harm

Is NOT the Way to do it!

Social Stigma: the severe social disapproval of personal characteristics or beliefs that are perceived to be against cultural norms (Wikipedia, 2010).

On February 28, 2010, a British reporter by the name of Jennifer Kyte published an article entitled %u201CKids Cutting Themselves on Facebook: PEOPLE INVESTIGATION into UK's sickening internet boom in the 'best ways to mutilate yourself'%u201D.  It was published on People.co.uk.  The article itself tells a tale of undercover reporters %u201Cinfiltrated%u201D several Self Harm groups on both Yahoo and Facebook and spoke of teenagers %u201Cswapping ideas%u201D about how to cut oneself and how not to get caught.  When the reporter mentioned the Self Harm group on Facebook and how the place literally promoted Self Harm, and blamed certain individuals for it, that is when this reporter officially worsened the stigma on mental illness.  Ms. Kyte%u2019s published opinion also succeeded in effecting one of the supporters of the Facebook Self Harm group.  She is also a self harmer and being accused of promoting self harm triggered an episode sending her to the hospital.  She is still in the hospital and has been for several weeks.

            When one read%u2019s this article, it is clear that the research on self harm was either never really done or not accomplished thoroughly.  For example, in Jennifer Kyte%u2019s article she states: %u201CMost self-harmers - mainly women and teenagers - have mental or emotional problems and see their bizarre actions as a release%u201D.  Her mistake was calling the issue a mental and emotional %u201Cproblem(s)%u201D as opposed to an illness.  She also belittled the action by calling it %u201Cbizarre%u201D as if she were merely dismissing it as something a person did for attention, when in reality; it has nothing to do with attention at all.  Most self harmer physically hurt themselves because communicating their emotions rationally is difficult for them to accomplish.  Therefore, hurting themselves is a way of releasing their emotions.  These are not %u201Cbizarre%u201D actions.  They are a cry for help %u2013 the very help that the Self Harm was trying to provide. 

The support group is just that %u2013 a support group.  For self harmers, this group was to help them write out their emotions, even if a lot of them were horribly negative and vulgar.  For a person who is not a self harmer, this may seem odd or wrong.  But, for the self harmer, writing about how he or she feels and how he or she wants to cut and then posting it means that he or she has come a long way in their recovery: a fact that Jennifer Kyte obviously bypassed or dismissed. 

            Writing an article like this without really doing the proper research and taking the time to sit with a self harmer to really ask him/her questions so that the reporter can realize that this is not a mental %u201Cproblem%u201D but a real mental illness, just make the article a hint closer to slander. 

            I am posting this petition so that we can have the editors at People.co.uk order Jennifer Kyte to make a formal apology.  Her actions have caused serious harm and she has no right to publish an article when she really has no real knowledge regarding the subject matter.  Here is the article:

http://www.people.co.uk/news/tm_headline=kids-cutting-themselves-on-facebook&method=full&objectid=22074798&siteid=93463-name_page.html

After it is read, please sign this petition and help us fight the stigma on mental illness.

Thank You,

Ami Elizabeth Colon