what leads to the stigmatization of persons with mental illness??

Answer 1

Fear of the illness, and an irrational hope that it is "Their fault" and therefor can not happen to "us".

Answer 2

Historically, since people did not understand that mental illness was a real illness, they tried to find explanations for different/bizarre behaviors. Based on lack of knowledge and misguided religious beliefs, many came to believe that the mentally ill were cursed by the devil or other similar beliefs.

In addition to that, again lack of knowledge, some people were afraid it might be contagious. Or that the parents of such a person were being punished, leading the parents to feel shame or humiliation when their child turns out to have mental illness.

In this day and age, in spite of attempts to educate the public about mental illness, fears and "old wives tales" still affect some people. If the illness can't be explained by a medical (physical) problem, then it is scary to some folks.

There are also a lot of fears based on books and movies that all mentally ill persons are capable of violence and hence should be avoided.

Just as there are still racial prejudices, there will probably always be some people who do not want to understand that it is an "illness" causing the person's behaviors.

Answer 3

One stigma is due to the fact that you can "See" a mental illness. There is no blood test to prove that a person has one. You can prove cancer, you can see a physical illness. Basically, a mental illness is diagnosed by a series of questions. Another stigma is that people with mental illness used to be seen as "crazy" and hospitalized for years for something like depression or bipolar. A lot of people still view mental illness as something "all in your head" and not an actual disease. They think someone with depression should just "snap out of it."

Answer 4

Ignorance of the nature of the disorder, bad public view of mental problems by the public due to a bad press, old fashioned opinion that the disease is caused by "demons" and just disliking someone who is a little different.

Answer 5

Well people have a lack of understanding for people who are ill, and treat them badly. Also like others mentioned the media like books, and movies are to blame because you take movies like Dead By Sunset, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and Goodfellas In all of these movies characters who were crazy, and sociopathic appeared. Like in Dead By Sunset the main character Brad Cunnigham brutally killed his fourth wife, but he did to keep her from getting custody of his sons, but failed to consider the consequences of his actions, and was quite abusive with women. Also the movie is based on a true story. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest mentall illness is further misunderstood because in this movie a character was acting out, and is not crazy. In Goodfellas the character Tommy is also sociopathic, as he shot Scooter in the foot for supposedly slow service which was not cool, and he gets real hothead, and just kills people without considering the consquences because he is kind of a maniac like that. Also based on a true story. Then you take real life criminals like Jeffrey Dahmer, Andrea Yates, and John Hinckley Jr. Now all of these people are mentally ill no doubt about that but with I think all of them despite their poor mental health knew what they did was wrong. Because look it! Dahmer knew it was wrong to kill people, and eat them but he could not stop himself. The same could be said with Yates as her defense attorney even argued that if she had still been on her meds then her children would be alive today. But it was her/ her husband, and her doctor's dumb idea to take her off her meds thus increasing her instability, and making her a threat to her children. Case in point also Texas wanted to give her the death chair, which I thought was fair because to the contrary to what people think about mentally ill people being violent they are usually more of a threat to themselves then others. So which is why these days especially with the right treatment mentally ill people can live normal healthy lives just like everyone else. So having a mental illness does not excuse you from your behavior, and actually by using a mental illness to justify behavior you are actually reinforcing to people the idea that mentally ill people are highly unstable, and that is not necessarily true if they are properly medicated, and have a good support system like good friends, and family to look after them. Finally Hinckley did what he did as he claims to impress Jodie Foster, but if he had figured out a way to impress her in a non psychotic way, and considered the consequences of his actions he would not have scared her the way he did. So in conclusion mentally ill people are less likely to hurt others so people have no real reason to discriminate against the mentally ill as long as they can control themselves. But since society does not always know this, and has been socialized to see mentally ill people as crazy people who should be put away the stigma of mentally ill people continues. But hopefully with more understanding , research, and additional types of medications to help treat mental illness. People will realise that the mentally ill are no different then you, and I, and just have some extra challenges to deal with because they see the world differently.