Stigma can be traumatizing; most people might not be able to face it and most times end their lives. The howls of people's insults and the expectation of you thinking people will have pity on you turned out even worse.When I was 6 years old, I felt the pain of my brother's crisis. I wasn't the one going through it, but I felt it. I wanted to change it if I had the power to. He was in too much pain, yet we couldn't do anything when people started asking me questions about him. I have to lie to their face with pity in their eyes and the last statement. “Chai” I didn't want to hear it. I wonder how they got to know because the more I kept lying, it was evident. Packed up lies because they won't stop asking, so I continued with the lies because there wasn't any need to feel sympathetic towards it.
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My brother, a surviving sickle. He is so slim that people kept asking me the same question over and over again. Most times I get pissed off, and I lie to their face. My brother isn't a sickler, I will say, but the next question is if he has HIV. It was one of the things he had to face. I don't know if he was asked the same question, but I hate asking him about it. Then I thought my brother was going to die. I have heard numerous stories of people with sickle cell dying younger, but he is a survivor.
Additionally, when I was in school, one of my friends faced stigma because she got pregnant out of wedlock. Her stomach was showing, and it was vivid that she was heavily pregnant. She couldn't forfeit schooling, and the break was over. Though she started schooling when the exam was close. The surprise in people's eyes, the whispering, and all that. Though she acted like it wasn't affecting her, deep down it was. Almost everyone has her name on their lips, especially when she doesn't act like a bad girl. She was distant, and most times she was always seen alone and unbothered about the situation. She was known as a good church girl, and all of a sudden, the pregnancy, but luckily for her, before she could give birth to her child. She got married to the guy.
The stigma of not being trustworthy when it comes to business. Most people are good at scanning people unknown to them; they are just tarnishing their brand image. Last night, I happened to be in a group chat. Two grown-ass people were washing their linens in public. It happened that these two adults were lovers, but the girl decided to end things with him, but the guy was so hurt that he started to talk about the girl in a public group chat. After he had talked and insulted the girl's family, the girl came afterwards to defend herself still yet in a brutal manner. I was so ashamed of these two, though I wasn't really close to her. I patronized her once, and that was it.
She just ruined her reputation, and she was thinking people were going to support her, but their comment was so hurtful that I thought to myself, how will the girl feel when she reads them? Won't she be traumatized? What about her mental health? Her business. That automatically changed the way people view her, and it was going to affect her brand. People use their own hands to create stigma for themselves.