In the words of one psychiatrist I interviewed, insurance companies and others often act as though depressed people were slackers complaining about a bad hair day. The psychiatrist's anecdotal view, based on his years of practice, is supported by empirical evidence. New York Times columnist Frank Rich correctly notes in his recent article about Mets pitcher Frank Harnisch that it takes great courage for depressed persons to be open about their illness. Hence, employers the Wall Street Journal quoted as worried that employees will fake mental illnesses in order to claim special accommodations have little to fear. The stigma is so great that the healthy are unlikely to claim mental illness in order to get, say, additional flex-time.
Stigmas attending different diseases vary in important ways.
Mental health professionals and organizations have been working for years now to erase the stigma associated with mental illnesses. These efforts have largely centered on educating the public about the true nature of various disorders. This is critically important work, but alone it has not yet succeeded. Nor should it be our sole approach. Scant attention has been paid, by either mental health professionals or social scientists, to how the names we use for diseases such as depression affect our thinking about them.