A depressed turtle.A delusional snake.
A paranoid crocodile.
A sheep with multiple personality disorder.
A hippo with autism.
At first glance, you might think these are cute. But go further and you'll learn that these furry animals are stuffed with stigmatizing beliefs about mental illness.
Parapleusch - a European toy company - is selling these toys with the tag line "Psychiatry for Abused Toys". On the website, you can play an online game at The Asylum and give "treatment" to the toy of your choice. But be prepared for stereotyped crazy behavior, outdated and incorrect diagnostic labels, hallucinogenic drug reactions and the always insulting puppet-sock therapy. Make sure you see the "no-hanging" suicide policy wall sign in the community room. Insensitive. Distasteful. Stigmatizing.
Several blogs have picked up on this story - so you might be hearing about this in mainstream media soon. I'm no stick in the mud. I do enjoy humor. But this kinda stuff needs to stop.
What do you think?
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