I don’t think I’ve experienced stigma, but I don’t put myself in situations where it can arise either. Just wondering if you feel you’ve experienced stigma.
- Have experienced stigma
- Have NOT experienced stigma
0 voters
I think I have experienced stigma from my sister. She’s a very ignorant person.
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I find that people in general are a mixed bag when it comes to understanding, which isn’t at all surprising, I mean humanity is a mixed bag regarding nearly everything. I’ve never experienced stigma in places like the workplace and such, but then nobody knew, either, so it wasn’t possible. I guess I mostly consider it my personal business, and if I tell people about my mental health experiences and struggles, then it comes with the reality that I’m putting myself out there and people have the right to their own perceptions and opinions.
Sadly and ironically the only place I’ve ever really dealt with stigma problems is with medical and mental health professionals. I’ve known more than a few non-professionals that understood better than half the professionals I’ve seen over the years. My primary care physician knows about my diagnoses over the years and still treats me with more dignity and respect than most of the therapists and psychiatrists I’ve seen.
It seems strange, too, since don’t psychiatrists not get paid nearly as much as many other types of doctors, yet still have to go through at least as much education (which is very expensive)? So you’d think they would have a passion for it. But maybe not.
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When sandy hook happened 20 minutes from me…and I was in the peak of my psychotic days…I faced a lot of stigma
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It’s still stigma if they don’t know what they’re stigmatizing? Correct? Because before meds 90% of people stigmatized me cuz I was “different” although I don’t believe they knew what they were stigmatizing. But since meds I haven’t faced much stigma.
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I think I experienced it when I was in the hospital earlier this year. Some nurses where picking on me. Even going so far to saying that they weren’t going to let me out because I was too much of a burden on my family and no one loving me. Then I think they were pranking me by putting stuff on me, being restrained at the time I couldn’t tell, but I swear I felt something odd on my head. No-one believes me when I tell them.
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i believe it has stopped me from progressing academically because i was stigmatised twice about my mental illness
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I’ve not experienced much stigma ,but then I don’t interact with many people.
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Wow the poll numbers are startling.
back when I was fresh only a few weeks into stable recovery years ago I told all my new friends at this bar I went to with chris and missy that I was mentally ill… there was this one dude who said, " oh look, it’s mr. schizophrenia!" I think he was trying to get a rise out of me so he could fight me. I just walked away but I decided not to tell strangers I was schizophrenic anymore.
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@everhopeful were you the Only one of 25 who voted no on your poll?
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Most of the stigma I’ve faced was kind of secondhand from my family members. They were worried about other people finding out, so they pressured me to keep it a secret. But I am a loud mouth and refuse to be silenced! Eventually, they just got used to it. Well, most of them did. A few still get uncomfortable whenever I talk about it. Almost all of my friends were super chill about it. Most of them had long suspected something was up, and were just relieved I was finally getting better.
Pretty much I think 
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For me too! Sad, isn’t it? The ones who stigmatized me the most, treated me the worst, showed me the least respect and kindness, and the most arrogance, stigma and judgement, were mental health professionals! Psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses! They mostly talk to me like I’m some sort of moron, not to be taken seriously in anything I say, because I have been psychotic in the past. Even things like joking in a mean way about me and other patients among each other. Or denying the sexual child abuse that happened (and that I can prove).
Outside of psychiatry, I have lots of very good experiences. All my family, all real friends and some people from church either know of my psychoses or they know I have been hospitalized with major trauma and irrational anxiety without me explicitly using the word psychosis. They don’t treat me with stigma. Even when they had to visit me in a ward, they still treated me well. They have been acting so much better, more understanding and helpful. I am really grateful for that.
I don’t remember having had a problem with stigma outside of psychiatry.
I face a lot of stigma from relatives and my in laws. just a few weeks ago I went to a funeral and someone asked my mother in law how she could sleep in the same house as me. I think my in laws are still scared of me in a way. they lock the door between the two places of residence. yet we are not allowed to put a lock on our side of the door.
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I don’t tell people I am disabled. I just tell them I am retired which is also true. My family doesn’t treat me like I am sick but they all know I go to bed early.
I used to tell people that I had a mental illness because I thought that was the responsible thing to do. Now I don’t foolishly tell anyone in real-life that I have it, and I don’t talk to anyone in real-life except one or two people including my brother.
I’ve experienced stigma from mental health care workers that were supposed to help me. I have been dumped and denied care because I mentioned I had “psychotic” in my diagnosis.
I can remember one or two times that I’ve been stigmatized by guys who wanted to date me. There was one particular guy with whom I was talking to for quite time and eventually we got to the topic of ‘madness’ and I told him, half joking, that I’m pretty mad. " how so?" He suddenly got serious.
“In which way”. So I shortly told him about my issues, various diagnoses and that I’m taking pills. He joked " oh its okay as long as you don’t kill me at sleep".
But guess what, he never called me out and we eventually stopped talking.
Another example is my ex bf. He would explicitly tell me that I’m untrustworthy and need to be taken care of.
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I think I stigmatize myself more than other people do it to me. My illness is like 50% the other 50% is how I handle it which is not well. I appear to be normal but I can be talking to someone and then all the sudden it will occur to me that I’ve been hospitalized for psychosis and I start to feel like a creep. I wonder what they would say if they knew just exactly who it was they were taking to or where I had been over the last 15 years. I feel like u have no say in anything nowadays. My words don’t matter because I’m not real.
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