Good day, amazing people of Hive Blockchain. Welcome back to my blog. It is another edition in the #hivelearners community. I am so delighted to participate in this week's prompt stigma.
Stigma hurts so much; it is one wound that you can’t see, but it hurts really bad. Stigma is capable of hurting an individual if it is not properly handled. I have seen someone who nearly ended his life because of stigmatisation. People forget that the moment you are distancing yourself from someone who needs you, it will affect the person at that moment. All the person wants is love and care. One thing about stigmatising someone: you will leave a mark that will take ages to heal.
Most times people don’t share their problems because they don’t want to be stigmatised by people around them; they prefer to be heroes and heroines. Most times the end result is always bad because they were afraid to open up to people. Try not to stigmatise someone because these people are really passing through a lot. People who are victims of stigma are not confident, and they think lowly of themselves.
It will be nice if we can stop the cold shoulder we give to people; it will really help to reduce stigmatisation. With this, they will feel comfortable communicating with us about what their people are.
I have this classmate of mine; he is always talked down at because he is always sick and he looks so slim. It really affects his confidence because the majority of our classmates were distancing themselves from him. He was a sickle, and the majority of our classmates avoided him. My thoughts about people with sickle were so wrong; I always distance myself from him so that he will not transfer the illness to me. Back then the boy was always on his own, crying because no child wanted to talk and play with him. I can just imagine the emotional trauma the boy had to pass through. At a point the boy stopped coming to our school because the discrimination was too much, and he couldn’t communicate with us because we had judged him wrong.
It was after the boy stopped coming to our school that he told his parents what he was passing through at the hands of his classmates. That was when our teacher educated us on what a sickle is, and she made us realise that putting the boy into stigma will take a lot of time for the boy to heal from.
How to overcome stigma
Believe me, it is not always easy to overcome stigma we need to fight. It is not easy to overcome stigma; it is a gradual process.
Self-love: practical self-love Don’t let anyone talk down to you; show yourself all the love you need.
Visit a professional. Going for counselling will really help to overcome stigma. There is always that friend you are looking for.
Self-acceptance: accept yourself for who you are, knowing that will help you fight stigma. Don’t allow stigma to take the better part of your life.
Stigma is very painful; we should care for these people rather than stigmatising them. I always pity those who are stigmatised because of health challenges.
This is my entry to ongoing prompts #hivelearners #hl-w159e3 topic stigma.
Thank you for stopping by my blog. I really appreciate your comments, support and upvotes. Do have a wonderful evening.