COUC 546 Week 5 DB Forum 3: Social Experiential Activity Example

Discussion Board Forum 3: Thread and Replies

COUC 546 Psychopathology, Discussion Board Forum 3 (social experiential activity, thread and two replies)

Thread by [Student Name]

The writer, the activity and the classmates' posts are composites standing in for the student's own; the manual, textbook, Scripture and studies are real and described from their published sources; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for COUC 546.

Thread

For my activity, I spent forty minutes on a Saturday afternoon speaking quietly aloud to no one, pausing as if listening and occasionally shaking my head, first in a grocery store and then in a public library. I chose this because hearing and responding to voices is one of the most visible symptoms of schizophrenia, and I wanted to know how strangers treat someone who appears to be doing it. I kept my voice low, did not approach anyone and planned to stop if anyone seemed frightened.

The reactions came quickly. In the produce section, two shoppers looked at me and then looked away for the rest of the time I was nearby. A man turned his cart around rather than pass me in the aisle. A mother pulled her son closer as they walked by. In the library, a staff member watched me from the desk for several minutes. Only one person, an older woman, asked, "Are you all right, honey?" I felt my face burn every time someone looked away, and by the end I wanted to apologize to everyone in the building.

Link and Phelan (2001) define stigma as the co-occurrence of labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss and discrimination, made possible by power. I saw the first steps happen in seconds. People seemed to label me as mentally ill, assume I might be dangerous and separate themselves physically. National data suggest this is not just my small sample. Pescosolido et al. (2010) compared General Social Survey responses from 1996 and 2006 and found that more Americans attributed mental illness to neurobiological causes and endorsed treatment, yet desire for social distance and perceptions of danger toward people with schizophrenia did not decline.

What struck me most was that no one did anything cruel; the stigma I felt was made almost entirely of small acts of avoidance. Kring et al. (2016) describe the isolation that often accompanies schizophrenia, and I now understand how a person could withdraw simply because the world withdraws first. For counseling, this means that social isolation in a client with psychosis may be partly a response to others, not only a symptom. It also means advocacy matters.

In Luke 8, Jesus crossed the lake to a man everyone else avoided and spoke with him directly (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Luke 8:26-39). The older woman in the produce aisle did something similar on a small scale.

Classmates: did anyone respond to your activity with kindness, and how did it change your experience?

Reply to Erin

Erin, your activity of checking that your car door was locked five times before walking into each store connected well to obsessive-compulsive disorder. You wrote that hardly anyone noticed, but that the ritual itself made you late and anxious. That difference from my experience is important. Some symptoms draw public stigma, while others mainly cost the person time and peace. The DSM-5 notes that compulsions are often performed to reduce distress and can take more than an hour a day (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), so your five checks were only a small taste. Your point that the anxiety grew when you tried to skip a check is something I would want to remember with clients, since resisting a compulsion is hard work even when no one is watching. For counseling, it also suggests that a client with compulsions may look fine to others while privately losing hours each day, so asking about time spent is essential. Did you notice the urge to check fading after you stopped the activity?

Reply to Marcus

Marcus, wearing a winter coat, hat and gloves on an eighty-degree day must have drawn a lot of stares. I was interested that people laughed at you rather than avoiding you, as they did with me. That contrast fits the model described by Link and Phelan (2001), in which stereotypes shape the reaction: odd clothing may be read as harmless eccentricity, while talking to oneself is read as possible danger. For clients, both reactions carry a cost, since being laughed at and being avoided each say that the person does not belong. Your observation also reminds me that some unusual behaviors, such as dressing inappropriately for the weather, can be signs of a serious mental illness or of homelessness, and that a counselor's first question should be about need rather than judgment. It also makes me wonder how many of the people who laughed would have avoided you if you had added one more unusual behavior. What do you think made people feel free to laugh?

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Kring, A. M., Johnson, S. L., Davison, G. C., & Neale, J. M. (2016). Abnormal psychology: The science and treatment of psychological disorders (13th ed.). Wiley.

Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. C. (2001). Conceptualizing stigma. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 363-385. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.363

Pescosolido, B. A., Martin, J. K., Long, J. S., Medina, T. R., Phelan, J. C., & Link, B. G. (2010). "A disease like any other"? A decade of change in public reactions to schizophrenia, depression, and alcohol dependence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 167(11), 1321-1330. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09121743