Mental Illness Stigma

Stigma starts with labeling a person with a mark of disgrace or shame. It as 4 composing parts:

• Identifying and labeling a person with a certain state and condition
• Pointing out people in the public who have that condition (stereotyping)
• Creating a division a superior "us" group and a devalued "them" group, resulting in loss of status in the community
• Discriminating against someone on the basis of their label

Despite recent progress in our medical understanding of mental disorders, many people still regard mental illness as a stigma a condition that is associated with shame and dishonor. When mentally healthy people stigmatize mental illness, they typically hold strongly negative attitudes against these individuals, simply because of their illness, often identifying and demeaning them with negative labels. Such attitudes create powerful barriers to the ability of patients and families to seek help or treatment by:

• increasing their fear of discrimination
• undermining their own knowledge of the illness, making it difficult for them to make decisions based on fact
• making them feel that they are outcasts from a disparaged group rather than individuals with unique problems
• increasing their sense of weakness and feelings of self-hatred

Much of the stigma associated with mental illness can be traced back to common misconceptions about what mental disorders are and how they affect patients.

One of the most common ways that people with mental illness are stigmatized is through stereotyping. Stereotyping is the process by which people form or express highly generalized beliefs about another person or group based on prejudicial, oversimplified, or false beliefs. People with stereotyped views may hold exaggerated views about mental illness based on hearsay, cultural indoctrination, or distorted images portrayed in the media, rather than on an honest assessment of a patient’s unique personality or specific features of his or her illness.

Stereotypes obscure genuine differences between individuals, making it easy for people to dehumanize others and maintain a social distance. The more common stereotypes still seen in television and movies of the past portray patients with mental illness as violent, pitiable, incompetent, or laughable. Stigmatizing mental illness through stereotyping adds to the humiliation and discrimination experienced by patients, erecting additional barriers to their seeking and receiving treatment.