Sara Sims Sociology of Health and Health Care Research Paper April 26, 2015 Sociology and the Stigmatization of Mental Illness Although it isn’t something that people in society thinks about daily, mental illness is stigmatized all the time. People may think that they don’t think badly about those with mental illness, but those people may be stigmatizing mental illness more than they realize. Recently, there has been a home put into a neighborhood of mine for people with mental illness. Since the neighborhood found out about this home, there were voiced concerns, many with inaccurate information about those with mental illness. Many of the concerns were that these people would would be dangerous, or loud, or that it would make the neighborhood look bad having “crazy people” living on the block. Another example is a time I was in Drum Corps. Drum Corps is like professional marching band, and my corps went to church every Sunday. One particular Sunday, we went to a beautiful church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As the service went on, people in my corps noticed a man sitting near us who was talking, rather loudly, to himself about God. It was almost as if he felt he was talking to God. Many of the people around me were making fun of the man, and speaking bad about him, not only during the church service, but throughout the day. They were stigmatizing his mental illness. People fear and shun what they do not know, and therefore stigmatize. What is mental illness
There are three things that can be used to define stigma: stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination (Corrigan 16). One type of stigma is called public-stigma, which is “the reaction the general population has to people with mental illness” (Corrigan 16). The media plays a large role in creating stereotypes and misconceptions. People tend to believe whatever they see on television, in movies, on the Internet, etc. Three of the common misconceptions created by the media are, “ people with mental illness are homicidal maniacs who need to be feared; they have childlike perceptions of the world that should be marveled; or they are responsible for their illness because they have weak character.” (Corrigan 29-32). These are traits most frequently used to describe those with mental illness and almost all of them are inaccurate. While, yes, there are people who do possess one or more of those traits, they are almost never seen out and about in daily life. The media has an unfortunate responsibility in properly portraying any sort of minority, but yet they still continue to misrepresent these groups. The only reason public-stigma really exists is because people are not fully educated on what it is actually like to have a mental illness. The media’s poor representation is all they know. If the media were to either stop misrepresenting mental illness victims, or portray them in a way that is
Although stigmatizing attitudes are not only relatable to mental illness, the public attitudes towards mental illness tend to be more disapproving than towards people with physical illnesses (Piner and Kahle, 1984; Socall and Holtgraves, 1992; Weiner, Perry and Magnusson, 1988). Those with mental illnesses are viewed as being more likely to be responsible for their mental illness (Corrigan et al., 2000; 105). This assumptions is more towards those who suffer from substance additions and eating disorders rather than those who suffer from conditions such as schizophrenia (Angermeyer and Matschinger, 2004). Such attitudes as these therefore lead to discrimination. People in society are less likely to employ (Bordieri and Drehmer, 1986) and rent apartments (Page, 1977) to those suffering from mental illness, citizens are also more likely to direct false accusations of violence to the mentally ill. (Explaining the increased arrest rate among mental patients: a cautionary note, 1980; Steadman, 1981)
While stigma may not necessarily be a cause of a person’s mental disorder, it can certainly contribute to the complication and perpetuation of their illness. The effect of stigma goes well beyond just the patient and provides a commentary on society’s overall level of intolerance of those who are considered different from the majority. By recognizing the level of stigma that exists, perhaps we can alter that behavior and gravitate towards a more productive attitude towards mental illness.
There has always been a stigma around mental illness. This stigma makes it difficult for the ones who suffer with
When my mom was first diagnosed with a mental illness, rumours and gossip spread quicker than wildfire. No one, not even my family and I, understood what was going on. All we saw was my mom acting like somebody else. “Crazy” became a word attached to her like a tail is attached to a dog. No matter who explained it or how many times it was explained many people could not see past their narrow views. It is common that people do not like what they do not understand. How can something be understood if it is not physical, not seen? There are many negative attitudes towards mental illness. It is misunderstood and is given less sympathy than a physical illness such as cancer. Often times when people are diagnosed with a mental illness they are automatically deemed crazy. We live in a time were normal is
Society looks at those with mental illness different ways; the most common are fear and scorn. Many people fear what they do not understand and mental illness fall under that. Because of lack of understanding of what mental illness is there is often fear and even scorn for those who have any sort of mental illness. Most of those who I know look down on those with mental illness and blame them for the symptoms they have. They feel like they are not working hard enough or just are crazy and should be sent away somewhere. That attitude can be seen commonly in media and those who are shown to have an mental illness loose respect because they have an mental illness.
Mental illness was first introduced in the mid-19th century. Mental illnesses are medical conditions that interrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning, they are medical conditions that reduced one’s ability to cope with the daily activities such as going to work or raising a family.
In our current society there is no love to be held for those who are classified as mentally ill. The mentally ill have become a stigma in our modern day society. When society hears the word mentally ill the unbidden thought of an unhinged man or woman walking down the street talking to themselves or yelling incoherently comes to mind. If they aren’t stereotyped as insane, then the mentally ill are generally seen as awkward, violent, incompetent, or weird. Even without the negative stereotypes, there are some who consider mentally ill people a burden on society simply because they don’t believe mental illnesses are actual diseases. For the people like myself who haven’t had any interactions with the mentally ill, we get our information about mental illness from mass media. The media is of no help to the mentally ill either, though the media may occasionally portray a mentally ill character as quirky or bighearted, they are usually portrayed as insane and coldhearted. The media unintentionally perpetuates the institutionalized fear of the mentally ill. If society is constantly associating metal illness with negative character traits, this can lead to fear and discrimination. Without the help of society backing them up, people with mental illnesses will ignore or disregard them, or not be given the treatment they need. An example of this is evident in Aviv’s article, God Know Where I Am, Linda Bishop ignores the mental illness she has been diagnosed with. Though Linda Bishop
Stigmatizing may be something as simple as "just take a nap, you'll be over it soon" or something complex like "you're making it up for attention" or "you're just looking for a reason to miss school". For example, one of my friends, (we'll call her K) suspected herself to have generalized anxiety and moderate depression. Before K began to receive treatment and medication, her friends were respectful and helpful. After being diagnosed, they started calling her an attention seeker and needy. Mental illnesses are a big deal, and many people lose their lives to them. Only 59.6% of individuals reported receiving treatment for their mental illness (as of 2011) (APS). There are stereotypes that depict people with mental illness as being dangerous, unpredictable, responsible for their illness (it’s their fault), or are incompetent to care for themselves. These stereotypes can lean to active discrimination, for example excluding people with mental conditions from certain jobs, social, and educational opportunities; this is called structural stigma. Structural stigma is stigma that is part of social and institutional policies and practices. In a medical setting, a negative stereotype can make providers less likely to focus on the patients rather than their disease
The world as we know it is a vast melting pot of various illnesses, diseases and disorders that people in society suffer from daily. Although diseases, mental disorders and other existing health problems are heavily prevalent within our society, they are all still subject to unhealthy views from those who do not understand the underlying issues. Mental illness, are two words that cause people to instantly cast judgment and turn away from those displaying the behavior. Mental illness has a long withstanding stigma and discrimination that can cause those who are suffering from whichever problem make their difficulties worse and make it harder to recover than it would be for someone with a physical health issue. If mental illnesses
This article was written by Patrick Corrigan, an author and advocate for people with a mental illness and Amy Watson a professor with interest in mental illness stigma and the treatment. In this article, both Corrigan and Watson on a psychological level, integrate research specific to the stigma of mental illness with a general research on stereotypes and prejudice to provide a brief overview on the issue. Throughout the article they explain public stigma, strategies for changing public stigma and self-stigma. This article is useful because it helped me to better understand the impact in a different way. After reading this article a decided to put a section about self-stigma in my argument because it was not something I thought about writing
Stigma has been said to be “a feeling of being negatively differentiated owing to a particular condition, group membership or state in life”(Arboleda-Florez & Stuart, 2012, p. 458). There are typically two types of mental illness stigma that are discussed. Public stigma, also known as societal stigma, is the stigma associated with the prejudicial attitudes the public holds towards those people who suffer from mental illness (Arboleda-Florez & Stuart, 2012; Corrigan, Markowitz, Watson, Rowan & Kubiak, 2003). Self-stigma, also known as internalized stigma, is the loss of self-esteem, withdrawal, and personal shame that some with mental illness will experience. Self-stigma is usually developed when those who suffer from mental illness associate the negative stereotypes the public holds with themselves (Chronister, Chou, & Lieo, 2013; Corrigan et al., 2003).
Many researchers have studied diverse groups of people, such as Asians and Westerners (Sheikh and Furnham, 2000), to better understand the cultural differences of help seeking patterns, however, there are also cultural differences within groups, such as The United States of America. One subculture among many countries is the distinction between rural and urban communities and locations. Orignally it was believed that due to the rural lifestyle’s characterization of “social stability, supportive interpersonal networks and community cohesion” residents would be projected against developing mental health disorders (Lyneham & Rapee, 2007, p. 108). However, rural economic decline and high rates of “urban migration,” as well as a significant increase of rural youth and young adult
Common stigmas with mental illness include feeling as though you will somehow be threatened by the individual whose mind is not well. It is also thought that someone with mental illness may be obviously identifiable, such as someone who is unkempt, or does not exercise good hygiene. The media does its fair share of perpetuating and instilling these images that many of us have of someone who is mentally ill. Another stigma is that the person on the corner who may be talking or mumbling to himself and is wearing torn, tattered, and dirty clothing must be a drug addict and couldn’t possibly be very intelligent. We do not stop to think that his mind may be in the process of being tortured by voices and magnified sounds.
Individuals with serious mental illness are doubly affected by their disease; not only do they experience the often debilitating symptoms of their condition, but they must also endure mundane mental health stigmas and prejudices. Stigmatized attitudes are perceived to be one of the greatest impediments to living a complete and fulfilling life. Stigma has been defined as a combination of three related problems: ignorance, prejudice and discrimination (Rose, Thornicroft, Pinfold, & Kassam, 2007). Ignorance implies a lack of knowledge, prejudice entails negative attitudes, and discrimination involves exclusionary actions against people deemed to be different. Two forms of stigma are commonly distinguished in literature. Public stigma describes the attitudes of society towards people with mental illness, while self-stigma results from the internalization of prejudice by people who suffer from mental health conditions (Corrigan, Powell, & Rüsch, 2012). The World Health Organization announced that stigma was the most crucial obstacle to overcome for a community to functioning effectively and efficiently (Ontario Hospital Association, 2013).