Spooky Season Shouldn’t Be Stigmatizing

The calendar is once again on October. And with that comes a return to the season of pumpkin spiced everything and Halloween. For many people, it is a time for pumpkin patches, fall decorating, Jack-o-lanterns, and of course, picking out a Halloween costume.

This means that it is also time for our annual reminder that certain costumes aren’t spooky, they are just stigmatizing. These include costumes with straitjackets, or anything with the word “psycho” in it. These costumes may have had their place, but that doesn’t mean they were ever appropriate. On the contrary, they are stigmatizing to the 1 in 4 individuals who live with mental illness.

Halloween, and by extension Halloween costumes, should be spooky, not stigmatizing. Mental illness isn’t a costume. It isn’t something that can be taken off. And for many, the only mask is the one they use to try to hide their mental illness because of stigma.

We are often asked how to help those in need. Sometimes that means supporting organizations like The LegalMind Society, sometimes that means using the right language when talking about mental illness, and during Halloween it means not contributing to the stigma by wearing costumes that can cause real harm through the stigma they create.