Stigma in mental illness: causes, consequences and how to avoid it

Over time it has been established to think of someone who suffers from mental illness as crazy, unbalanced, that the wheels do not have the wheels in place, that something is missing, etc. The very names of the places where patients were treated or locked up, asylums, neurodelusions, added an image of discrimination with respect to any other patient.

Although today the legal instruments that sanctioned the removal of psychiatric patients from society, there are still social stereotypes that do not encourage the person who suffers to ask for care suitable. Many people, in fact, are afraid of being ridiculed by friends, acquaintances, or even family. Therefore, they tend to hide their suffering until there is a pathological outbreak or a slow destruction of life itself.

In this Psychology-Online article, we will delve into the sensitive topic of stigma in mental illness: causes, consequences and how to avoid it.

Index

1. Causes of stigma in mental illness
2. Consequences of external stigma in mental illness
3. Consequences of internal stigma in mental illness
4. How to avoid stigma in mental illness

The term "stigma" comes from the Greek sitzein and defines both who has a physical anomaly with respect to what is considered normal, such as someone who is awarded an infamous mark for having violated social norms. Stigma undermines the positive effects of the treatments themselves by exerting a negative influence in two ways: one social / public (external stigma) and a psychological / internalized (internal stigma).

According to social psychology, external stigma consists of three components:

1. Stereotypes: they are structured knowledge learned by the majority of the members of a social group with respect to the members of other groups. Regarding mental illness, the most common stereotypes are the following: people with impaired mental health they are guilty of being sick, they are dangerous, incompetent and parasites of society.
2. Prejudices: prejudice generated by stereotypes leads to discrimination. In this article, we tell you how prejudices affect society.
3. Discrimination: manifests itself in three ways: loss of opportunity (an apartment is not rented to a person with mental health problems), coercion (an authority makes decisions for a psychiatric patient, deemed incapable of doing so) and segregation (concentration of psychiatric patients in institutions or isolation in social contexts).

Discrimination suffered by patients is a necessary element to initiate or reinforce the self-stigmatization process. This process is accompanied by two other factors: the fact that the sick individual shares common stereotypes (people with mental illness are incapable) and its application to oneself (I am incapable because I have a disease mental).

In this article, we show you the difference between mental illness and mental disorder.

Many studies show that mental illness is interpreted by the majority of the media in terms of violence, reinforcing the stereotype of dangerousness and, consequently, the stigma Social. The consequences of external stigma in mental health are:

• Prejudices derived from social representations of mental illness.
• Bad representations in the media communication: negatively influence the course and outcome of the disease.
• This stigmatization not only affects people with mental disorders, but also family members and caregivers.
• Marginalization of the social context: when a personal trait is the object of particularly widespread and hostile negative evaluations, which severely mark the identity and self-esteem of the subject, it is called stigma.
• The idea that someone who suffers or has suffered in the past from a mental disorder is potentially violent and dangerous. This causes a worsening of the living conditions of the person due to marginalization.
• Adaptation of the person himself to the role that society imposes on him. This phenomenon, known in social psychology as pygmalion effect, favors the realization of social prophecy.

It is true that stigma causes psychological damage. The concept of internalized stigma, or international stigma, is used by Ritsher to assess the psychological damage caused by social phenomena. The consequences of internal stigma in mental health are devaluation, shame, secrecy and resignation caused by the application of negative stereotypes to themselves.

Disease self-stigma scale

Ritsher, Otilingam and Grajales developed a scale (ISMI) consisting of a questionnaire grouped around five topics: alienation, adherence to stereotype, experience of discrimination, social withdrawal, resistance to stigma. In it, the authors tried to fully describe the internal dynamics of the subject between the impulse to belong to the group of the "normals" and resistance to the annihilation of individual experiences, taking into account the past and hope for the future.

This new proposal was applied to 127 patients with mental disorders, correlating the data collected with other scales, which evaluated depressive symptoms, self-esteem, tendency to healing, etc. The results have shown how a high internalized stigma is related to the depressive symptoms and the stigmatizing conditions.

How to avoid internal stigma in mental illness

In internalized stigma it is fought by self-esteem, empowerment and confidence in healing. The most interesting aspect of the work is the fact that internalized stigma appears as a risk factor in the prolongation of the disease or in the beginning of an unfortunate course. In these articles, you will see how to improve self esteem Y how to have confidence in yourself.

Many people in their lives have mental health problems. However, this issue hardly becomes a public debate, if not when we are faced with a dramatic case of chronicle. With the result, sometimes, of making even stronger the stigma that still today, unfortunately, surrounds mental illness.

Overcoming stigma and prejudice means working for build a responsible community and welcoming and, at the same time, it means building the best antidote to any temptation to go back. Knowledge of the stigmatization process is useful to understand what strategies can reduce the impact and what changes need to take place, both in the person and in the service system.

Therefore, to avoid stigma in mental illness, one must promote the achievement of personal goals from the patients. For example, services managed by users, favoring a positive identification and the decision to acquire their own experience. Other strategies to fight stigma in mental health are:

• Community Initiatives to combat discriminatory attitudes and behaviors.
• Work alongside patients to maximize their ability to resist social processes that undermine your identity.
• Identify and challenge the stigmatizing impact, although involuntary, of many professional practices.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Stigma in mental illness: causes, consequences and how to avoid it, we recommend that you enter our category of Social psychology.

• Carozza, P. (2014). Dalla centralità dei servizi alla centralità della person. The experience of changing a Department of Salute Mentale. Milan: Franco Angeli.
• Digilio, G. (et al.) (2005). Wade-retro of the question. Piccolo dizionario di salute mentale. Rome: Armando Editore.
• Sell, S. (2005). Stigma interiorizzato e vergogna. Noos, 11(3):233-243.