Stigmatization

What is mental health stigma?

Mental health stigma can be divided into two types. There is Social stigma and self stigma.

Social stigma is when someone has an extreme disapproval of a person or group on socially characteristic grounds that are perceived, and serve to distinguish them, from other members of a society.  Self stigma is the internalizing by the mental health sufferer of their perceptions of discrimination, and perceived stigma can significantly affect feelings of shame and later lead to poorer treatment outcomes.

 What factors cause stigma?

First, the medical model implies that mental health problems are on the same level as physical illnesses and may result from medical or physical dysfunction in some way. This by itself implies that people with mental health problems are in some way “different” from “normally” functioning individuals. Secondly, the medical model implies diagnosis, and diagnosis implies a label that is applied to a “patient”. That label may well be associated with undesirable attributes, and this again will perpetuate the view that people with mental health problems are different and should be treated with caution.

Why does stigma matter?

Stigma involve prejudicial attitudes and discriminating behavior towards individuals with mental health problems, and the social effects of this include exclusion, poor social support, poorer subjective quality of life, and low self-esteem. As well as it’s affect on the quality of daily living, stigma also has a detrimental effect on treatment outcomes, and so hinders efficient and effective recovery from mental health problems. In particular, self-stigma is correlated with poorer vocational outcomes and increased social isolation. These factors alone represent significant reasons for attempting to eradicate mental health stigma and ensure that social inclusion is facilitated and recovery can be efficiently achieved.

 Who holds stigmatizing beliefs about mental health problems?

Many people hold stigmatizing beliefs about mental health problems. Both people who know someone with a mental health problem and people that don’t, have stigmatizing beliefs. Moses (2010) discovered that adolescents with mental health problems were mostly stigmatized by peers, teachers, and even family members.

Normality vs. Abnormality

          Normality and abnormality can be difficult to really understand and differentiate. But what is Normality and abnormality? Normality is applied to behavior that is considered normal, standard and regular in individuals or for a society as a whole. Abnormality is the opposite of Normality. Abnormality is unusual behavioral patterns, emotions and thoughts. This kind of behavior is more often than not, linked with mental disorders.

Defining abnormality, and what abnormal behavior really is in psychology, is very difficult. Because to define what is abnormal, you have to know what normal behavior is. Normal behavior varies all over the globe. In a south-american tribe full facial tattoos are completely normal, but in Europe a full facial tattoo would be looked upon as abnormal, and as something that is wrong. Walking around naked, without clothes is a normal thing amongst some south-american tribes, but in the more modern and civilized parts of the world you would probably be looked at as crazy and people would look at you and think that somehow you managed to escape a high security hospital. In other words, people will stare at you, and they will talk about you. The reason for this is most likely due to social and cultural variation amongst people.

It is quite difficult to determine what normal behavior, thoughts and emotions really are. Normality would be the kind of behavior that is expected from you in different situations. For example: A family member just died, so you stay at home and keep to yourself and don’t talk much. Since a family member recently passed away this is a kind of behavior that would be expected from you. But if you suddenly behave in the same way where you stay at home and keep to yourself and don’t talk much, but you don’t have an obvious reason for it, then people will start questioning it as they see it as abnormal behavior.

         

As mentioned the culture and situation is something that has a big impact on your behavior, as the situation and culture are major determinants of appropriate and normal behavior in a given situation. So we must assume that in every situation there is an expected behavior. Violations of the expected behavior or social norms that are based on culture and situation, will lead to people believing something is wrong with you as they think of your behavior as abnormal.