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Mental Health Stigma

MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA

Amanda Wilson
Allegany College of Maryland
Sociology 250: Intro to Social Work
Professor Jason Gaither
April 10, 2023
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Mental Health Stigma

Abstract

The topic of this paper is the mental health stigma worldwide that is keeping people from

accessing and seeking services and the consequences from that. In the future I hope to see a

reduced stigma around obtaining mental health services and medication.

Introduction

The mental health stigma that keeps people from seeking and obtaining services is a

critical issue around the World. “In recent years, there has been increasing acknowledgement of

the important role mental health plays in achieving global development goals” World Health

Organization. But that is not enough. Depression is a leading cause of disability, with suicide

being in the top 5 leading causes in 15–20-year old’s deaths. It has been noted by the World

Health Organization that “People with severe mental health conditions die prematurely.” These

people can die up to 2 decades earlier than people without severe mental health conditions.

People can be good at getting through tough and unfavorable situations. But if they go

through those during developmentally sensitive times (like during early childhood) that can make

things harder for them. Some things that can be affected are social skills, individual skills,

positive social interactions, quality education, decent work, safe neighborhoods, and community

cohesion says the World Health Organization. If someone lacks the appropriate skills needed for

positive social interactions that can and will affect them in their daily life. They can struggle with

so called simple tasks like asking questions for clarity, sharing items or tasks, or getting

someone’s attention.
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Mental Health Stigma

A few reasons that people do not seek services when they are struggling with their mental

health are that they do not want to seem week or needy, a lack of understanding of services, and

they do not want to be judged by others. These are all valid concerns because other people think

these exact things about the people seeking services. People with mental health conditions have

been portrayed as different or sick for decades on tv and in movies and books. Because of this

people believe it and treat others the way they see these fictional characters treat others.

According to a study done in 2018 over 30% of the thousand participants believed that having a

weak personality would cause depression. Yokoya et al 2018.

History

In the past decades mental health was not talked about. People did not talk about their

feelings or needs to family or friends let alone “strangers.” In the beginning though people did

not participate in therapy for mental health problems. They saw doctors who performed surgeries

and procedures on them that would seem crazy today. Some doctors would do a procedure called

trephination which was when they would remove a small part of the patient’s skull. This was

supposed to help with mental illness, headaches, and relieve any demonic procession.

In the 1600’s bloodletting and purging was a popular treatment for mental health. An

English physician Thomas Willis argued that an internal biochemical relationship was behind

mental disorders. Bleeding, purging, and even vomiting was thought to help correct those

imbalances and help heal physical and mental illness.” Creech 2023.

Isolation and Asylums were a preferred treatment in medieval times, and then became

widespread by the 17th century. These buildings were “places where people with mental disorders
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Mental Health Stigma

could be placed, allegedly for treatment, but also often to remove them from the view of their

families and communities.” Creech 2023. In the asylums they were usually overcrowded and had

very bad sanitary conditions. In asylums patients would be treated with physical methods like

restraints or ice baths. Another popular physical treatment was insulin coma therapy. This was

introduced in 1927 and continued in to the 1960s. This was when doctors would put a patient

into a low blood sugar coma because they thought that these large jumps in insulin would alter a

person’s brain function. These comas would last between one to four hours. The risks of this

were a prolonged coma, and it had a mortality rate between 1% and 10%.

Metrazol therapy was when doctors would induce seizures on patients. The side effects

were broken bones, torn muscles, and many others. This was later replaced with

electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Lobotomy was one of the most well-known physical

treatments to mental illness. Lobotomy was when the doctor would do a procedure to cut or

remove connections between frontal lobes of the brain and the prefrontal cortex. Some patients

did have improved symptoms after this procedure, but many ended up with other impairments

afterwards. This procedure was discontinued after psychiatric medications were introduced in

1950s. Creech 2023.

Progress

Organizations like the World Health Organization have been working hard to end this

stigma and help show that asking for help does not make you weak or needy. It makes you strong

and shows that you are aware of your needs as a person. The mental health community has

developed and studied safe and effective mental health treatment. And it is now uncommon to
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have an in person or overnight stay somewhere because of your mental health. The main time

you will be forced to stay somewhere due to your mental health is if you are a threat to yourself.

And even then depending on the place you will only be forced to stay there 24-72 hours.

The treatments to help people struggling with mental health are psychotherapy,

medication, support groups, ECT, and EMDR. There are also different types of psychotherapy

including behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, interpersonal therapy, psychoanalysis,

psychodynamic therapy, and supportive therapy.

According to Pescosolido “approximately one in three individuals expressed an

unwillingness to socialize with someone with depression in 2006, but less than one in five

individuals expressed the same unwillingness in 2018.” “While almost 50% of individuals

reported an unwillingness to work closely with someone with depression in 2006, only 30%

expressed that same unwillingness in 2018.” There is not one main group of people who only

participate in making this mental health stigma known. It is individuals from all walks of life and

backgrounds.

Future Looks Ahead

To decrease the mental health stigma and increase the amount of people willing to go to

therapy that need it, we need to change the way we treat people with a mental illness. These

people deserve to be treated with compassion and respect so they can feel safe going to therapy.

They also should not have to feel broken or that there is something wrong with them because

they need to access these services. While there has been a lot of work done to help make this

stigma lesser, it may never go away completely. The World Health Organization believes that
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“Increased investment is required on all fronts: for mental health awareness to increase

understanding and reduce stigma; for efforts to increase access to quality mental health care and

effective treatments; and for research to identify new treatments and improve existing treatments

for all mental disorders.” Success in reducing the mental health stigma will happen when

everyone can come together to help one another.

Conclusion

In conclusion just remember that depression is a leading cause of disability, and that

suicide is in the top 5 leading causes of 15-20-year-olds deaths. Having a severe mental

condition can also cause you do die up to two decades earlier. We have come a far way from

taking out chunks of people’s skulls or putting them in asylums. But we also have a ways to go.

There is more that can be done with the help of increased awareness of the way we talk about

people to our friends or how we talk about people on tv.

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References
World Health Organization. (n.d.). Mental health. World Health Organization. Retrieved April 4,
2023, from https://www.who.int/health-topics/mental-health#tab=tab_1

World Health Organization. (n.d.). World Mental Health Report: Transforming mental health for
all. World Health Organization. Retrieved April 4, 2023, from
https://www.who.int/publications-detail-redirect/9789240049338

Daze, G. (2022, February 28). Mental health stigma: Statistics, causes, and effects. BrainsWay.
Retrieved April 4, 2023, from
https://www.brainsway.com/knowledge-center/mental-health-stigmas/

Yokoya, S., Maeno, T., Sakamoto, N., Goto, R., & Maeno, T. (2018, March). A brief survey of
public knowledge and stigma towards depression. Journal of clinical medicine research.
Retrieved April 4, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5798266/

Creech, J. (2023, April 3). A history of mental illness treatment. CSP Global. Retrieved April 4,
2023, from https://online.csp.edu/resources/article/history-of-mental-illness-treatment/

Pescosolido, B. A., et al. (2021, December). Trends in public stigma of mental illness in the US,
1996-2018. JAMA Network Open.