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Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

PatchworksSenior Contributor24 Oct 2022, 9:16 pm AEDT

Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

I'm not sure which topic to store this one, useful resources or here. Anyway, a well respected medical journal, the Lancet, has done a huge amount of researcg work on stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness. The 22 October 2022 issue has it all free to download and read. You do need to register and login but that's free to do.

It talks about types of stigma like individual stigma, including self-stigma, through to structural or systemic stigma (an eg I find is like not being able to get income protection or life insurance).

It's a very long read but very interesting and full of added quotes, poems from people with lived experience like us.

An interesting point for me was the longer term effect of changing the label in some countries, away from a stigmatising one, "schizophrenia ", to something less loaded. It resulted in higher rates of diagnosis, presumably stemming from higher help-seeking by people with a possible schizophrenia illness.

I had huge problems with self stigma after my first episode psychosis. So bad and so little insight, I used to dread ever being mentally ill, especially schizophrenia, and here I am nearly 30 yrs later with schizoaffective disorder, and accepting of the label. I did get diagnosed schizophrenia in my 20s.

I thought that the lamcet work could start a great conversation in forum land...

9 replies

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In response to: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

Jo-anneJoySenior Contributor24 Oct 2022, 10:46 pm AEDT

Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

Here's the link

The Lancet, 22 October 2022, Volume 400, Issue 10361, Pages 1381-1486

In response to: Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

PatchworksSenior Contributor25 Oct 2022, 7:35 am AEDT

Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

Thanks @Jo-anneJoy for including the link. I forgot to do that

In response to: Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

Jo-anneJoySenior Contributor25 Oct 2022, 9:17 am AEDT

Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

You are welcome @Patchworks It is quite an illuminating article. Worth running down the ink on my printer to have a hard copy that I can take to with a highlighter.

Eradicating stigma is like washing penguins after an oil-spill. Just when you think you're done, there's another p-ed off penguin down a burrow that needs a good scrub.

In response to: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

MDTSenior Contributor25 Oct 2022, 10:19 am AEDT

Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

Hi @Patchworks
Looks interesting

At first glance I think I have a few things to say and I like that you posted this also.

In terms of self stigma this is something I experience. Where I can think to myself "oh I have depression or anxious mindset around <xyz> and therefore I can't can't do it"
Or that I think "I'm depressed or anxious and people will judge me about it" and when I do this I end up judging myself in that process anyways.

When I worked in the courts system I often saw people come through and claim mental illness (there is a part of the criminal act that covers mental illness). But many times people would come before the court and say "I have a diagnosis of depression" and therefore they'd apply for mental health applications. This just really peed me off. They were speeding in a car and think that they have depression and this means they don't cop the penalty. Good magistrates would see through this for the garbage that it was. They would say "the defendant has mental health issues however they are not suffering a mental illness". In other words, the illness is different to the health issues. It's an important distinction I reckon.

In response to: Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

MDTSenior Contributor25 Oct 2022, 10:20 am AEDT

Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

Haha that's a hell of a phrase - cleaning penguins after an oil spill
Lol

In response to: Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

MDTSenior Contributor25 Oct 2022, 10:20 am AEDT

Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

Reminds me of "re arranging deck chairs on the titantic"

In response to: Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

Jo-anneJoySenior Contributor25 Oct 2022, 10:56 am AEDT

Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

When it comes to rearranging deckchairs, I've covered the entire Blue Star Line ,,,

From the article in The Lancet, this really makes my blood boil and I have lost count of the number of GPs over decades that have "overshadowed". My mother who had a diagnosed SMI and I shared the same GP who, unbeknownst to me, was stigmatizing me and not referring me to a specialist. He also had not referred my mother to gyn services and specialist clinics. Very covert and insidious. I used to work in the court and the medico-legal arenas and was impacted by what is now understood to be "vicarious trauma".

from page 9 :

Prejudice by healthcare staff has been linked with worsened health outcomes
and physical health care because of diagnostic overshadowing, in which physical symptoms are misattributed to mental health conditions.

In response to: Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

hanamiSenior Contributor25 Oct 2022, 11:05 am AEDT

Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

Interesting @Jo-anneJoy . I saw this a lot in my old job in community mental health. I worked with an older population and their physical symptoms were often misattributed as mental health problems. It made me so mad to see.

Hanami

In response to: Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

PatchworksSenior Contributor27 Oct 2022, 8:20 am AEDT

Re: Stigma and discrimination and mental illness

I like also how the research article talks about language like avoiding "commit" suicide which has negative connotations. Little things can make such a difference.

Language is very important to me and I feel it has a role in producing, or reducing, stigma.

My blood boils if someone goes on about "loonies" or uses terms like "schizophrenic" in a disparaging way.

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