“We need your hand, your understanding, not for you to flee”

Feeling different, not being able to access a decent job or being rejected by the social community, are some of the experiences that make the daily life of people who suffer from a mental illness difficult, a diagnosis that is aggravated by the strong stigma that still exists in society.

Shining in the Dark (BELO) tries to fight against this reality and against the silence that surrounds it with brushstrokes of art. Promoted by Europa Mundo, Rotary, Lealtic, Universitas XXI, Andersen, Amafe and Hermanas Hospitalarias Aita Menni, BELO proposes in a contest people diagnosed with a mental illness, individuals who have already overcome the disorder or relatives and friends of the victims who share a own work that expresses the feelings through which a direct witness of these experiences, sometimes traumatic, goes through.

With this and granting a total of 21,500 euros in prizes of nine categories, the aim is to minimize the impact of stigma. Eliminate that mark or sign in large letters that those affected by these diseases carry 24 hours a day.

Luis Garcia is the person who has developed the BELA initiative. He was the creator of Europa Mundo, a company specialized in making tours around the entire globe. But after suffering a psychotic break he had to resign because, he says, “It would have affected the company a lot.” Since then he continues working in the company he created, investigating new routes. “Before I kept quiet because of the position I held in the company, but now I am not afraid and my mission is to end the stigma in mental health,” he tells the newspaper.

“I am one of hundreds of millions of people who consider the following: Mental illness is taboo so great that the greatest suffering of the sick is not only the illness; It is the stigma that leads them to lose self-esteem, to suicide, to lose all confidence in themselves,” he adds.

“Stigma affects the perception of the patient himself, it makes him suffer twice as much, going into a tunnel of darkness, fighting for a society that rejects him,” mentions the creator of Europa Mundo. “In addition to talking about mental health, what is missing is stop blaming ourselves for our illnessto stop being stigmatized, to be able to speak freely,” García asserts.

“In society nothing is said about stigma because it makes us feel guilty. That guilt introduces us into a circle of silence and is like the whiting that bites its tail. Nothing is achieved,” says García.

Regarding what are the aspects to improve as a society, García declares: “The first thing is dignify the sickthat they do not lose their honor simply because they are sick.

“We must promote a movement together that says enough is enough, we need your handyour affection, your understanding, not that you run away, not that we are plagued, not that you mock us when we have our attacks,” Luis clarifies, declaring the purpose of BELO.

Through tears, Luis states the following: “I am no longer afraid of madness because I already know it. I have realized that the fear I had was a fear that came from stigma. I know that, if I fall ill again, I will not be afraid of the stigma, I will not feel alone, humiliated, ashamed again,” concludes the creator of Europa Mundo.

Hospitaller Sisters

Manuel Martin Carrasco He is a psychiatrist and works as medical director at the Aita Menni Hospital Sisters centers in Navarra and the Basque Country. This organization collaborates with the project that seeks to break down the walls of stigma: Shining in the Dark. In addition, Carrasco is the president of the Spanish Society of Psychiatry and Mental Health. He defines the stigma as follows: “A pejorative attitude that we can have towards certain people, based on one of their physical or differential characteristics that diminishes the value of the affected person. They are attitudes, they are prejudices that detract from that person’s value,” he reports.

Carrasco points out that there is also self-stigma: “Stigma is incorporated into one’s identity. Not only is it in society as a whole negatively distinguishing someone, but the diagnosed person themselves ends up internalizing it, generating a feeling of devaluation and self-esteem. low”. That is, the affected person internalizes and normalizes this external factor of rejection. He feels different, incapable, sunk.

This phenomenon affects everything that is contaminated with that stigmatization, he comments. “It includes the doctors who treat these people. Doctors see psychologists and psychiatrists as a different branch of medicine. In some ways, that vision permeates everything and it is very difficult to combat,” explains Dr. Manuel Martín Carrasco.

“I believe that any initiative that produces visualization is important to combat stigma,” says the medical director of the Hospital Sisters centers. Regarding the educational aspect, he formulates, it is vitally important to teach this social reality to minors and instill in them a different vision, that does not promote stigma, than the one they perhaps bring from home.

“You cannot reduce a person to a disorder they suffer from, the person is much richer and must be put in contact with the rest of society so that the community knows that wealth.” They are long processes, but with initiatives and education, added to the work of the media, granite by granite, great social milestones can be built.

Rotary

Luis Garcia, from Europa Mundo, is a Rotarian (volunteers of the Rotary International foundation specialized in social projects). Thus, Francisco Canovas, founding member of Rotary Club Madrid Corporate, learned about the BELO project. “One of the objectives of the Rotary club is to help others, to launch a project aimed at the needs of people around us,” says Canovas. Mental health They thought it was a good area and joining forces they decided to collaborate. “The purpose of Rotary International’s intervention in Glow in the Dark is to give positive visibility to the initiative,” he concludes.

Francisco Canovas He is totally excited about the cause because he has a 52-year-old sister who suffers from bipolar disorder. “With an unmatched past in terms of studies and professional merits, such as reaching management positions, at this moment, it is impossible for him to carry out his work,” he communicates. For this reason, he says that since mental health is an issue that we tend to hide, something that is not done with any other illness such as cancer, the point of union between Rotary and BELO was allowed. “Give hope that it is recoverable, like any other illness and, if possible, once it is overcome, normalize it. That access to a job can be facilitated,” concludes Canovas.

‘Openly’

“83% of people who suffer from a serious mental disorder do not have a job precisely because of the stigma,” he comments. Maria Fente, co-director of the documentary ‘AbiertaMente’. The film tells the routines of five people diagnosed with a mental disorder.

Because of the stigma suffered by people who suffer from a disorder, Fente explains that it was “very difficult for them to find testimonies, because many of them were in the process of selecting a job and I did not want that to harm them.” This complication is an example. clear of what the stigma generates for them. “Not being able to be themselves, living with the fear of being who they really are,” says the co-director of ‘AbiertaMente’.

What he learned most from doing the five episodes, he concludes, “was that you don’t have to have prejudices associated with disorders and that each mental illness affects each person in a different way.

One of the people who participated in the documentary is Javier Martín, a professional actor who participated in the program ‘Caiga Quien Caiga’ presented by ‘El Gran Wyoming’. After struggling with a diagnosis that completely changed his life, he published a book called Bipolar and much honor where he narrates his experience with the disease in a comic tone to dedramatize the main topic, mental health.