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 The study had 46 ethnically diverse individuals over the age of 20 participate in 45-minute interview in regards to living with their disorder and the social impact it had on them and their social circles. Due to it being a qualitative study there was no standard scale present to measure the struggles stigma created in the participant’s lives. Through interviews, interviewers could ask about different experiences to gauge when stigma has affected their lives socially in the following themes: diagnosis, treatment, disclosure, disclosure of edited diagnosis, media and negative events (Dinos 2005). Interviewers also questioned the types of stigma they felt from their social …show more content…
Stigma was experienced through first hand experience of discrimination or through generalized attitudes from their social environment. Regardless of whether the individuals experience stigma directly or indirectly, the consequences for individuals resulted in hiding or changing their diagnosis for friends and family or at times unable to search for the appropriate treatment, Though this may have not been a case for everyone, as not everyone experienced stigma or they didn’t have significant negative attitudes towards it. CONCLUSSION The major outcome of the study was a call to action an empathetic approach to those with mental disorders as stigma can cause negative feelings, negative emotions, and feeling outcaste from their social circles.