What do you think of when you hear the phrase “the stigma of mental health”? Typically one might consider public stigma, that is, the treatment – or lack thereof – suffering individuals receive from the public due to the association of their illness with their identity, personality, or morals. As a literature review of mental illness in the United States mentions, public stigma “sets the context in which individuals in the community respond to the onset of mental health problems” (Pescosolido et al. 2010, p. 1324).

This is not the only form of stigma that individuals with mental illnesses face. Self-stigma is a process that some go through by internalizing negative attitudes towards themselves based either on the perceptions of others or the lack of value they place on themselves due to feelings of lost self-esteem. This can make it even harder for individuals to feel that it is safe to speak up about their feelings and experiences, especially when the internalized negativity is amplified by the lack of safe spaces and open mindedness in society regarding these topics. The means of recovery from the mental illnesses one faces can be much harder to access when these stigmas are disturbing suffering individuals. A physician who had been diagnosed with manic depression conveyed their feelings with regards to their depression in the Journal of the American Medical Association: “If my colleagues knew that I was bipolar, I fear that I would never again be taken seriously, that I would be viewed as the ‘impaired physician’ who, at a display of passion or emotion, would be seen as having an ‘episode.’ My hard-earned credibility would be gone. My right to express even normal anger or irritability, happiness or my effervescent sense of humor would be suspected as pathological. I would lose the right to just have a bad day”. Stigma, whether self inflicted or societal, holds the power over people with mental illnesses to seriously impact their ability to feel like they can get better because they feel like they must keep everything internalized in fear of judgement.

There are ways that we can fight to end this stigma. Raising awareness is just the first step in this process – educating the public on what mental illnesses exist and how they impact individuals and their families is just the start. Sharing experiences and promoting open-mindedness through discussions is an important part of this process so that the public gains insight with regards to what these illnesses are actually like, rather than leaving them as abstract concepts. We cannot continue allowing the “othering” of individuals with mental illnesses, regardless of what they are, to occur.