What is Stigma?
Stigma involves negative attitudes or discrimination against someone based on a distinguishing characteristic such as a mental illness, health condition, or disability. Social stigmas can also be related to other characteristics including gender, sexuality, race, religion, and culture.
Unfortunately, our society still faces the burden of damaging stigmas—stigmas built on half-truths or even outright misleading information. Due to the negative attitude surrounding mental illnesses, there are delays in treatment, or even a worsened impact on one's mental health.
⇀ What counts as stigma? ↽
- Media depictions where the villain is often a character with a mental illness
- Harmful stereotypes of people with mental illness
- Treating mental health issues as if they are something people can overcome if they just "try harder" or "snap out of it"
- Using phrases like "she's crazy" or "he's nuts" to describe other people or their behavior
- Halloween costumes that depict people with mental illness as violent and dangerous
- Treating mental illnesses as trends
Sourced from the National Institute of Mental Health, MakeItOk.org, and verywellmind.