To expect a better response to this?

[Albadross]

A recent tweet I read was from a mental health blogger to Joy Store, who have a few shops in London. she'd taken a photo of a card they sell that read 'don't get mad, take Valium'.

She'd asked them if they thought this was an appropriate thing to sell, and they'd responded the following:

'Then if you know anyone with bipolar, don't buy it for them PROBLEM SOLVED.'

Her response - 'what if a customer with bipolar sees it?'

Joy - 'what, they'll like it one minute and not the next?'

Right, so they rely on people going in to their shops to purchase things - that's their whole business model, yet they want 1 in 4 people with mental health problems to see this and then see their response when a customer tells them it's out of order?

I'm still shocked to see this kind of backwards rhetoric, especially given that several other retailers have suffered as a result of faux pas about mental health. I sincerely hope none of their staff actually do have bipolar because they must feel embarrassed to disclose.

Way to keep stigma alive!

But again, it's comparing apples and oranges.

Let me just reiterate that to me, the card in itself, although symptomatic of the attitudes that still exist - might be funny in some contexts, but unless you have a decent idea of the context it is obviously unacceptable, because:

A) a customer reacted negatively to it and their business is reliant on giving customers what they want - certainly nobody wants to see something that suggests they're 'mad'

B) we're not yet at a point where enough has been done to level the playing field for people with disabilities, and within that, mental health still carries the most stigma despite being very common.

Even seemingly small and subtle undercurrents of unconscious bias foster more biased attitudes. As easy as it would be to remove this particular card from sale, they instead chose to not only keep it, but to also effectively tell a customer that mental health is a joke.

Perhaps adults can think logically about this, but to many young people seeing messages like that, it will reinforce the idea that with a mental health problem comes a target drawn on your head.