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Essay On Mental Health Stigma

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Introduction It was difficult to make the decision to be public about having a severe psychiatric illness, but privacy and reticence can kill. The problem with mental illness is that so many who have it especially those in a position to change public attitudes, such as doctors, lawyers, politicians, and military officers are reluctant to risk talking about mental illness, or seeking help for it. They are understandably frightened about professional and personal reprisals. Stigma is of Greek word of the same spelling meaning "mark, puncture," came into English through Latin Stigma is it is commonly used today to describe the negative feelings and stereotypical thoughts, and attitudes about people based on the traits of a person, which can …show more content…

Stigmatization of mental illness existed well before psychiatry became a formal discipline, but was not formally labeled and defined as a societal problem until the publication of Goffman’s book (1963). Mental illnesses are among the most stigmatizing conditions, regardless of the specific psychiatric diagnosis. Unlike other illnesses, mental illness is still considered by some to be a sign of weakness, as well as a source of shame and disgrace. Many psychiatric patients are concerned about how people will view them if knowledge of their condition becomes public Mental health stigma can be divided into two distinct types: • social stigma is characterized by prejudicial attitudes and discriminating behavior directed towards individuals with mental health problems as a result of the psychiatric label they have been given and has those types stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination Stereotypes are based on knowledge available to members of a group and provide a way to categorize information about other groups in society Prejudiced persons agree with these negative stereotypes, and these attitudes lead to discrimination through negative behaviors toward mentally ill individuals those negative perceptions create fear of and social distance from mentally ill persons. • perceived stigma or

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Stigma Concepts According to page 16 of the Unit 2 instructor summary, Erving Goffman claimed that “stigmas can result in a “spoiled identity” or a situation where an individual is devalued and, therefore, avoided”. One type of stigma is blemishes of the individual character, where a person is judged because of a character flaw that someone believes another person has. Another type of stigma is an abomination of the body, where people stigmatize others for physical flaws that they deem “weird”. The final type of stigma is tribal stigma.

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To dehumanize someone is to strip an individual of their individuality including their human attributes and qualities. For as long as mental illnesses have been known, people have treated those with illnesses much differently. A particular assertion i tend to agree with is that people who have mental disorders are always dehumanized in some way. This dehumanization is shown in One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest alongside other perspectives such as a live and pop culture point of view.

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Most adults are afraid of being dianois with a mental illness due to prejudices and stereotypes of people with mental illness being unpredictable, incompetent and dangerous. With these stereotypes it makes it harder for a person to find a job or find a landlord that would rent to them, leading to more undiagnosed cases of mental illness producing more self stigma inside of a victim, and creating lower self esteem, reduced hope and difficulty at work. More can include bullying and harassment, lack of understanding from family and friends, and fewer opportunities for work, social gatherings and housing problems. The 2019 national poll from the American Psychiatric Association shows that mental illness stigma is a problem in the workplace and only one in five workers feels completely safe talking about mental health but luckily almost half works felt safe talking about mental health. (Stigma, Prejudice and Discrimination Against People With Mental Illness,

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Stigma is a strong terrible label that changes a man or woman’s self-thought and social identity. Once a person is labeled by using others, it is usual for that individual to include that label into his or her own self-proposal. For an illustration, if someone in high tuition has been labeled as a nerd, may start to feel of themselves as a loser as a result of different humans’s opinions. Any one who has been stigmatized quite often has lower vainness and may also behave more deviant. Stigma overpowering other aspects of social identity.

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The term stigma refers to the attitudes and behaviours that people have against others, and The “dilemma of generalizing and stereotyping is a never-ending story”, because while we are aware that mistakes may be made about our judgements of people, we still have a human nature to still create opinions and judgements about people (Madjidian, Karlsson and Lankinen, 2013). Gender is defined as “the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers

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American Psychologist, 59(7), 614-625. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.7.614 Barney, L. J., Griffiths, K. M., Jorm, A. F., Christensen, H. (2009). Stigma about Depression and its Impact on Help -seeking intentions. Australian & New Zealand journal of Psychiatry, vol. 40 no.1, pp.

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On the other hand, perceived stigma or self-stigma is the internalizing by the mental health sufferer of their perceptions of discrimination (Link, Cullen, Struening & Shrout, 1989), and perceived stigma can significantly affect feelings of shame and lead to poorer treatment outcomes (Perlick, Rosenheck, Clarkin, Sirey et al., 2001). Back in the early 2000’s, there are a lot of cases pertaining mental health stigma and that society tends to discriminate these people with this disability rather than realizing the actual daily routine that a mental disorder patient go through in their lives. It is a lot harder than we think as most of us don’t encounter mental stigma thoughts. With that being said there is the global perspective relating this issue.

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Oxford Dictionary defines stigma as “a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person”(Oxford Dictionaries). The three main subjects that make up stigma are knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (Thornicroft, Brohan, 2010). For people who have a mental disorder, a stigma present within the workplace can result in several forms of discrimination against the individual (Corbière et al, 2012). It can cause them to feel socially excluded, guilty, ashamed, and inferior (Corbière et al, 2012). Shrivastava et al cited Franz et al who did a study that shows how stigma plays a significant role in a patient seeking out and continuing treatment, being compliant, and reaching favorable levels and outcomes of functioning (Shrivastava et al 2013).

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The mass media is a powerful tool to help us shape our perceptions of the society we live in. This is the same for the case of mental disorders. For most of us, we gather information about mental disorders mainly through the mass media and form our opinions (Slopen et al. 3). However, the media might not be a reliable source to make informed views especially when they often use stereotypes in their story telling. These stereotypes are generally wrong and create stigma around mental illnesses.

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INTRODUCTION The qualitative study, measured via interviews, focused on the stigma revolving mental health and its impact on patients with psychotic and non psychotic disorders. The study focused on the personal experiences and story telling of 46 individuals on their accounts of the discrimination and other consequences of stigma they have experienced about their individual disorders. PROCEDURES

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Additionally, they note the more contemporary trend to focus on the “contextual and dynamic nature of stigma” (p. 3), with the basic idea that stigma is in the eye of the beholder, or dependent upon its social context. Stigma involves the relationship 4 between what is perceived about an individual and how this perception compares with socially acceptable traits or attributes for that population. Ultimately, Kando (as cited in Page, 1984) sums up the concept of stigma quite nicely: “In its most sociological sense, the term stigma can be used to refer to any attribute that is deeply discrediting and incongruous with our stereotype of what a given type of individual should be” (p. 1, emphasis

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Mental illness is not a new concept; however, not many people are comfortable discussing mental illness. This discomfort may stem from the stigma following mental illness of the response to keep it private from the public. When first approaching each interviewee about their perception of mental illness, he/she seem uncertain to say yes because of the fear of offending someone or saying something wrong. At points during the interview, it was clear people were not comfortable discussing certain questions; however, everyone seemed to answer to the best of their knowledge with honesty. Interviewee One was a male Austin College student majoring in Business Admin, Interviewee Two was a male early twenties, and Interviewee Three was a female in her

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This was highlighted in a previous study which observed that, those reporting high levels of stigma were more likely to report having poor access to healthcare

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These stigmas are of character traits, physical stigma, and stigma of group identity. Stigmas of character traits are people known on record of imprisonment, addiction, homosexuality, unemployment, suicidal attempts, and mental disorders. These stigmas can be categorized as blemishes of the individual character perceived as weak will, domineering, or unnatural passions, and rigid or treacherous beliefs. While these types of stigmas made people seem weak during the time of Goffman writing this book, this is not the opinion in today’s society. Many of these traits have groups and support systems helping them to make themselves better.

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Why do the people of today still associate stigma, shame and blame with mental health issues? Mental health issues are extremely and widely misunderstood. Despite the fact one in four people are likely to experience some kind of mental health problem a year in the United Kingdom. “Mental health is a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being and it affects how we feel, think and act. It also helps to determine how we handle situations such as stress, how we relate to others and how we make decisions.

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