Stigma: The facts

Present in today's article will be a discussion on how Stigma can affect the Mental Health of individuals by examining scholarly papers.

Often you will find that the terms “Mental Health” and “Mental Illness” are used synonymously even though one refers to a positive topic and the other a negative respectively. This example is a perfect demonstration of how mental health is often receiving a negative tone in everyday mentionings of its name. The motto for the Suicide/ Mental Health Group is “Mental Health is not an Illness, It’s a cure!”, this seems to be something that many are either unaware of, or simply have forgotten about. You can find proof of this by starting a conversation about sensitive mental health topics with just about anyone or by analysing this example and getting other people to do so also.

Example: If someone came up to you asking for help because they were hurt would you help? What would your reaction be?

Now, what if someone came up to you and said that they had hurt themselves intentionally? Would you help? What would your reaction be?

Remember, it’s easy to say that you would help them in both situations, but how comfortable would you be? And how would you view them after that situation? In both situations they are hurt and asking for help, but it is likely that one will have far more negativity applied to it. With this in-mind it must be noted that both are indeed different, so both are likely to be treated differently, but if that difference causes a possible risk to the individual in-need then is there not a problem?

Courtesy of Suicide/ Mental Health Group

While this example does not provide scientifically sound evidence, if members of society (aka. you) react in a very negative fashion, you are likely to have been affected by a stigma, and are likely to affect others as well. So what does a stigma on Mental Health mean for those seeking it?  

Well according to a paper jointly published by three different universities in Europe it can have substantial effects as cited here: “Background Individuals often avoid or delay seeking professional help for mental health problems. Stigma may be a key deterrent…”. The paper discovered that “...internalized and treatment stigma being most often associated with reduced help-seeking. Stigma was ranked the fourth highest barrier to help-seeking...” [1] After reading this bit you may be saying to yourself “Well there you have it, lets get rid of stigma as it’s clearly a problem!” If you're saying this you would sadly have assigned yourself an impossible mission. You see, internalized stigma has been found to be prevalent in serious Mental Illness (at rates of 35% [2]), meaning that no counter stigmatization will help those who need the help the most. With this in mind, any form or volume of counter stigma is essential at bringing the rates of individuals who suffer from mental illness and don't seek help for fear of being ostracised by peers, friends, and family down.

One of the reasons individuals may feel uncomfortable in helping others deal with mental illness is that unlike with physical injury treatment, the wounds are not always visible along with the resources to treat them. You see even with the advancements in psychology and mental illness treatment that are claimed by many organizations; such as the Mental Health Commission of Canada, which whose president states, “Seven years ago, before the creation of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, Canada was the only G-8 country without a mental health strategy.  Now we are regarded as an international leader... ” [3] it seems that the general public has not experienced such advancements or even knows about them. When this lack of knowledge and comfort is expressed by individuals who are faced with helping those suffering from mental illness it becomes apparent that individuals seeking help may have a very hard and isolated path ahead of them. We mentioned earlier that “...no counter stigmatization will help those who need the help the most.” because of internalized (or self) stigma could not be effectively curtailed by “counter-stigma”. While this is true help does exist for these people. A recent study conducted by Illinois Institute of Technology found that self stigma could be fixed “...by fostering group identity, changing the perceived legitimacy of stigma through cognitive rehabilitation, and making strategic decisions about disclosing one's mental health history.” [4]

     

In conclusion we encourage everyone to read up on mental health and learn what it is all about, knowledge is the best weapon in fighting not just stigma, but ignorance as well.

Sincerely,

-- Suicide/ Mental Health Group

Suicide/ Mental Health Group 

Sources:
- Stigma as a key deterrent [1]  
- Internalized stigma and severe mental illness [2]
- MHCC President Statement- MHCC [3]
- Self stigma treatment [4]
- Mental Health Commission of Canada