Deconstructing Stigma

Deconstructing Stigma

Changing Attitudes About Mental Health

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The Campaign

Deconstructing Stigma: Changing Attitudes About Mental Health is a series of larger-than-life photographs and interviews with people from across the United States and beyond who have been affected by mental illness.

Since the campaign’s initial physical installation at Boston’s Logan International Airport, it has found homes in various US states, and has traveled the world with pop-up installations across the United States and in almost every inhabited continent. The installations, website, and the companion books serve to capture the complexity of living with a psychiatric disorder, seeking treatment, navigating insurance and healthcare systems, and facing stigma.

Told through the eyes of its participants, Deconstructing Stigma boldly challenges the misconceptions of what those with mental illness look like. The volunteers in this project are more than just statistics or nameless faces. They are mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, lawyers, doctors, engineers, musicians, and more. Each one has been affected by mental illness, and each one has also faced stigma.

Travelers look at airport exhibit — The physical installation of Deconstructing Stigma, on view now at Boston’s Logan Airport

Stigma—it’s an ugly word, and it’s even uglier to experience. Yet 75% of people with mental illness say they have endured the pain of stigma. Despite the concerns of being labeled and risking further stigma, the volunteers in this project are courageously sharing their stories of hope and resilience so that you will have an opportunity to “walk in their shoes” and perhaps step away with a different view of what it is like to have a mental illness.

1 in 5 Americans will experience mental illness in his or her lifetime. It is something that affects us all. If you are struggling with symptoms of an illness, or if you feel like no one would understand what you’re experiencing, this campaign is for you. You are not alone.

This project was developed by McLean Hospital, in partnership with local and national organizations. Together, we are deconstructing stigma, and together, we are changing lives.

Jenni

If I can help one person avoid having to go through some of the things I’ve gone through, then I can fall asleep at night

As someone who graduated from an Ivy League college and worked in politics, Jenni says she sometimes struggles to reconcile her exterior image with her interior life.

Originally, I didn’t want anyone to know about my experience with mental illness because there is such a stigma around it. I probably had my own stigma attached toward myself.

Over time, though, Jenni became wary of what she calls her “dual identity.”

I have this public persona and then I have this private self. They feel so disconnected from each other. In my private life, I’ve been in and out of treatment for years. I struggle with severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I’ve had issues with food and all these different things that no one can see on the surface.

To educate herself about her own issues, Jenni read and listened to the stories of others who had similar experiences. She gained respect for people who were able to be open and honest about their struggles, and she derived hope and inspiration from what she learned.

As much as I might think that no one cares about my story, which is a thought that I have quite frequently, I don’t think it’s really true.

I’m tired of living in a world where I have this immense cognitive dissonance between how I present to the world and how I feel internally. I don’t want to live that way anymore because it feels disingenuous and I’m very big on people being genuine.

Jenni’s struggles with depression began in high school and intensified in college. After she experienced a sexual assault during her senior year of college, her struggles were compounded by the trauma.

The circumstances around that experience led to me thinking it was my fault and to a lot of internalization of the blame for what happened. I never told anybody about the assault until I was 24. It’s still something I struggle with. It’s something that I cognitively understand is not rational, but I can’t emotionally accept that it is a fact. It’s definitely a process.

In her mid-20s, she sought treatment at McLean’s Gunderson programs, which specialize in care for people with personality disorders. The treatment there was a game changer for her and her family.

The groups are intense, and they get at really core issues. You get to know the people you’re in treatment with. The therapists there are wonderful, but they also don’t put up with anything, and I appreciate that both in my personal and professional life.

The late John Gunderson, MD, worked with Jenni and her parents in family therapy.

Dr. Gunderson didn’t abide by the established roles of who had power. He wasn’t intimidated by my father or my mother at all, and he put us all on even playing fields.

He did a lot in terms of educating my parents and helping them understand how their communication styles were ineffective with me. He helped me understand the same things. Over time, we really began to develop an ability to have more honest conversations.

Jenni completed a master’s degree in human relations, focusing on non-clinical mental health. Given her experience and love of public policy, she went to work for an organization devoted to substance use disorder policy. She feels this position allows her to use her personal experience to help a larger population.

I have always wanted to work in a public facing position. Within my position now, my personal experience within the world of mental health helps me every day. Though I have never struggled with opioids, I feel I know the pain experienced by that community more than others.

I am so grateful that my lived experience can be of service to a larger community of people who have been affected by mental health.

In the future, she would also like to work in the area of social justice. Jenni is grateful to have received world-class treatment for her mental health challenges. She wishes everyone could receive such high-quality care, and she wants to help make that happen.

My parents instilled a very strong sense of values in my sister and me—and one of those is the equality of the human condition.

As complicated as her relationship with her parents has been, she says they are her biggest supporters and the source of her life’s mission.

If I can help one person avoid having to go through some of the things I’ve experienced, then I can fall asleep at night because I feel like I’ve done something for somebody else, and I’m less concerned about myself than I am about other people. That’s the moral of my story.