Public And Self Stigma

Less and less people are turning to get help. According to the journal, “The Relationships of Public and Self-Stigma…” about one-third. This is because of the stigma that comes along with having a label of being “different.” People want to avoid the being publically classified as mentally ill and will put forth effort to conceal their use of the health services. After reading through this article, it promoted sympathy as an endorsement of the stigma and encourages someone with mental health problems to get help, without thinking of their label. Sympathy is used to correct wrong information about the stereotype placed on the certain mental illness that is being dealt with. The Second article, “How Clinical Diagnosis Might
Exacerbate the Stigma of Mental Illness” begins with talking about ‘”groupness.” This seems to be a running theme behind the stereotyping and seems to be an underlying cause of the stigma. Not only do we as everyday people stereotype people with these illness, but also Mental Health Professionals. This causes the public to see the Illness and not the person, especially when it is coming from a medical professional. One of the ways the article tells of reducing the stigma is to have regular interaction with people that have a mental illness.
This labeling and stereotyping can denounce these people of being apart of their communities. This makes it hard for them to work, have proper housing and do other things “normal” people enjoy. The Cognitive and Behavioral process has been broke down into four parts; Cues, stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. Stereotypes are the way we categorize people into certain groups. People who agree to the negatively of these stereotypes are prejudjuist. The article relates this to the stigma, because people who are diagnosed with a mental health problem are stereotyped. When a person is diagnosed they are considered, homogenous, and are distinguished by definable boundaries. They are grouped together and do not have a chance of being their selves, because they are their “label.” The final article, “The Power of a Label: Mental Illness Diagnoses…” Also begins with talking about prejudice and discrimination. It goes on to talk about people that are label with a mental illness experiencing rejection in their communities. According to this article only about 8 percent of people seek the help they
need. The first effort made in this article to sway away from the stigma, was to release the “label” without any behavioral information. They believe the label itself will bring about unique and independent results. The results of this were people still looked down upon or perceived them as a threat, when hearing that they had a mental illness; People relied on stereotypes. Overall the article says that when we perceive the person with the illness as dangerous we feed into the stigma of the illness. This encourages people to not seek help. This then lays the road for stereotyping and discrimination. However, with more reading a person with the mental illness that is in “remission status,”
May be viewed differently. This person may be seen as intriguing or approachable.

Each article brought up stereotyping; discrimination, and prejudice as key factor that play in the role of the stigma behind have a mental illness. If we as people become more aware of what the illness actually is about instead, just going off of the expectation of the illness. We can better understand and become comfortable with one and other, and get rid of the stigma all together, and encourage those who need help to reach out.