Mental Health Stigma Essay
Misunderstood:The Negative Effects Of Stigma On The Mentally Ill
“Stigma is a social construction that defines people in terms of a distinguishing characteristic or mark and devalues them as a consequence.”(Dinos Socratis) There is an undeniable stigma associated with people that have mental illnesses, in society they are treated differently and are even sometimes discriminated. The feeling of being stigmatized often times has negative effects on the lives of those individuals such as “depressive symptoms and demoralisation; poorer interpersonal relationships; and prevention from recovery or avoidance of help-seeking.” (Dinos Socratis)
It is common among individuals that are diagnosed with a mental illness to experience depressive feelings such as anger, depression, fear, anxiety, feelings of …show more content…
There are very, very few people that I talk about the ECT to... because it does feel...well I don't really want to talk about it because I hate it and it's horrible and also I feel there is big stigma attached and if they hear about that they'd think I was really mad.’ (White British woman, 41, schizophrenia”)(Dinos Socratis)
Notably, this woman is a model example of how the fear of being judged for a mental illness becomes an obstacle to having strong relationships. She is afraid of revealing that she is on medication, this indicates a lack of trust which will make any relationship crumble, and will prevent her from making new ones because trust is the base for any healthy relationship. Moreover,the lack of information in society on mental illnesses causes negative reactions to people that are affected, as seen in this example;
‘I've had moments when I was talking to someone quite happily, mentioned the sheer fact that I suffer from mental health problems and I turned to talk to someone else and their back turned, they're heading for the door literally.’ (African—Caribbean man, 33, schizophrenia)(Dinos
“Stigma is a social construction that defines people in terms of a distinguishing characteristic or mark and devalues them as a consequence.”(Dinos Socratis) There is an undeniable stigma associated with people that have mental illnesses, in society they are treated differently and are even sometimes discriminated. The feeling of being stigmatized often times has negative effects on the lives of those individuals such as “depressive symptoms and demoralisation; poorer interpersonal relationships; and prevention from recovery or avoidance of help-seeking.” (Dinos Socratis)
It is common among individuals that are diagnosed with a mental illness to experience depressive feelings such as anger, depression, fear, anxiety, feelings of …show more content…
There are very, very few people that I talk about the ECT to... because it does feel...well I don't really want to talk about it because I hate it and it's horrible and also I feel there is big stigma attached and if they hear about that they'd think I was really mad.’ (White British woman, 41, schizophrenia”)(Dinos Socratis)
Notably, this woman is a model example of how the fear of being judged for a mental illness becomes an obstacle to having strong relationships. She is afraid of revealing that she is on medication, this indicates a lack of trust which will make any relationship crumble, and will prevent her from making new ones because trust is the base for any healthy relationship. Moreover,the lack of information in society on mental illnesses causes negative reactions to people that are affected, as seen in this example;
‘I've had moments when I was talking to someone quite happily, mentioned the sheer fact that I suffer from mental health problems and I turned to talk to someone else and their back turned, they're heading for the door literally.’ (African—Caribbean man, 33, schizophrenia)(Dinos