Stigma and Mental Health
Mental illness is analogous to physical illness – mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in biochemistry, emotion, thinking and behavior or a combination of these. They are treatable.
1 in 5 Americans experience a mental health disorder at some point in their life yet mental illnesses are highly stigmatized. Patients with mental illness often experience feeling shamed, alienated, and blamed for their symptoms and perceptions of people with mental illness as having character flaws or moral failings are common.
References: APA (2020) and Corrigan and Watson (2002)