Persons suffering from mental illness often experience stigmatization. These people then internalize the negative attitudes of the society and convert to self-stigmatize (Podogrodzka-Niell and Tyszkowska, 2014). A noteworthy share of the society grasps a negative attitude on the road to the mentally ill and this behaviour has not altered for years. This is still happening in the society even with the promotion of information about mental illnesses and their increasing recognition of psychiatric treatment.
There are different forms of stigma; prejudice, discrimination, dread, disgrace, suspicion as well as stereotyping. It refers to the behaviour of people suffering from mental illness; people seizure the stereotypes about mental illness constructed by society towards themselves. They assumed that they would be rejected socially and possess no value for the society. They fear from the direct discrimination by the society due to the mental illness. General public in the Western world is considered responsible for construction of stigmas. People in the western world have stigmatizing attitudes about mental illness and in this list; well-trained professionals are included along with general public. This paper will discuss the stigmatization and how it has an affect over the process of recovery of people who suffer from any mental illness.
There are internal and external source of stigma, which can consists of unconscious comments and conducts or these can be determined actions. People can also be self-stigmatized because of internal factors. Both become the source of loss of self-esteem and an undecided approach towards treatment (Markowitz, Angell and Greenberg, 2011). This approach then make an affect over the process of recovery because of loss of self-esteem as this self-esteem was necessary to increase the ability to change. There can be a structural discrimination and society may reduce the number of available resources for these people. For example, there can be the inefficient system of mental health care for these patients in context of stigma. Stigmatizing behaviors are not always evident and there can be manifestation of these behaviours in subtle forms. When people have internal and external stigmatization, then they have strong feelings of shame related to specific attribute of their personality or the illness. Moreover, a person with the stigmatization is expelled from various zones of social functioning because of his rejection and discrimination in the society.
Thus, stigma affect people’s lives people suffering from mental illness in many different ways. The main disadvantage of stigma is that it proves as hindrance in the way of recovery process from the mental illness. It is a barrier in pursuing early treatment, as people mostly do not go for professional help until their get suffer from serious symptoms. Due to the stigma, people may also get disengage from therapeutic interventions or they may not continue their medication. All these serve as sources of hindrance in the recovery process. Recovery is a process that enable the person to have a sustaining and optimistic life along with dealing with all the limitations of the illness (ANGERMEYER and Schomerus, 2012). Recovery process is related with stigma but these are contrary concepts. For example, if recovery has a claim that there is half-full glass of opportunities then stigma has a claim in the opposite direction that there is half-empty glass. Challenges are identified and accepted in recovery process while in stigma there is identification of obstacles.
If a person is suffering from mental illness and general public associate stigma with this then person self-esteem declines. Person is also not able to continue the recovery process as
as a result of stigma associated with them due to mental illness. There is also a reduction in the social opportunities that can include employment opportunities or lower employment rate along with the accommodation. People due to the associated stigma do not want to be connected with these people and stigmatized them. Thus, when people do not want to have stigma associated with them then they avoid the treatment and drop out of treatment. This not only affect people who suffer from mental illness but this is a source of disturbance for those also, who are linked with these patients. This is a societal perspective and is not an individual one. This is also rooted in the culture and culture has an important influence with this process. Number of social factors affect the process of recovery and at the same time also become a source of stigma for people suffering from mental illness (Podogrodzka-Niell and Tyszkowska, 2014). These include public perception along with the media coverage of the illness. Moreover, there are patient’s social network, their attitude and role of the family as main factors. These all serve as a source of obstacle to the process of recovery.
For example, media as a main factor plays a crucial role in spreading the process of stigmatization due to the large coverage ability. The social reluctance is mainly due to stereotypical media coverage related to the illness. For example, media try to highlight the criminals associated with certain mental disorders. It also show people suffering from mental illness as poor, ignorant, and wicked. The only social support that these people get is from their family as they have poor social network or it is limited only to their family system. Therefore, stigma can jeopardize the recovery process and at a time when people require a lot of support, reinforcement, and love. It becomes the source of diminishing their ability to track a pathway of health concerning the body as well as spirit.
References
ANGERMEYER, M. and Schomerus, G., 2012. A stigma perspective on recovery. World Psychiatry, 11(3), pp.163-164.
Markowitz, F.E., Angell, B. and Greenberg, J.S., 2011. Stigma, reflected appraisals, and recovery outcomes in mental illness. Social Psychology Quarterly, 74(2), pp.144-165.
Podogrodzka-Niell, M. and Tyszkowska, M., 2014. Stigmatization on the way to recovery in mental illness–the factors associated with social functioning. Psychiatr. Pol, 48(6), pp.1201-1211.
