What Is Stigma In Mental Illness

Individuals diagnosed (currently or formerly) with mental illness often face many difficulties in life such as, prejudice and stigmas. Mental illness is still seen as a sign of weakness despite of all the knowledge known about it (Byrne, 2000). Stigma is a term with Greek origins. Stigmas are a sign of disgrace that makes a person different from other people (Schaefer, 2004). The Greeks cut or burned the skin of a person with a stigma to show that they are a blemished, and should be avoided at all costs (Goffman 1963). Stigmas occurs when society uses a label to degrade someone within a certain social group. A person’s physical appearance is not considered when it comes to stigmas. An individual with a stigma can experience the adaptive response …show more content…
Individuals with mental illness struggle with the symptoms of their disease, stereotypes, and prejudices that can lead to a lower quality of life. People with mental illness may have trouble finding and keeping jobs, having a safe home, access to good medical care. Forming relationships with other people may be a problem for people with mental illness (Corrigan & Watson, 2002). Page (1977) did a study via telephone, with six conditions, to landlords to see if people who identified as a mental patient vs individuals who did not will receive accommodations. The findings indicated that individuals who identified as mentally ill in three of the conditions were three times more likely discriminated against more often than the other conditions. Individuals who had severe speech problems did not receive the same amount of …show more content…
Psychiatrists have shown a tendency to have an ingroup and out mentality about individuals currently or formerly diagnosed with a mental illness. Psychiatrists major problem is to challenge their stereotypes and prejudices. Psychiatry have contributed misconception about mental illness such as Insulin coma treatment. Frontal lobotomy, and treatments for homosexuality. Psychiatrists do not have the term stigma within any British psychiatry textbooks, thus little research is done on stigmas and discrimination. Descriptions are available for many different types of prejudice but none are available for people with mental illness. The contribution process of psychiatrists must be addressed before patients can get help. Psychiatrists should address stigmas separately. It is highly unlikely that patients will bring up stigmas to professionals. Psychiatrists should make up a treatment plan that first addresses discrimination, prejudice, and life experiences. Treatment plans could lead to a specific focus on one of the experiences or to a way of discovering how the patient can change the way others see them. Experiences should be generalized for the patient to be able to overcome perceived and real difficulties. Thus, the psychiatrist learns more acute knowledge about stigmas instead of the commonly held stereotypes of the past (Byrne,