Why we need a new understanding of silence in mental illness

Calls to break silence pervade public discourse on mental health. Silence can of course be harmful if it results from stigma and prevents people from getting the support they need. Such socially imposed, harmful silence should be broken. But we need to stop talking as though all silence in mental illness is like that. Although such oversimplification lends itself to punchy campaign slogans, it does not reflect the lived experience of patients. More importantly, it can inadvertently harm people already in severe distress.