1. Why do you think there is so much stigma associated with mental illness? What factors do you think contribute to self-stigma?

2. In what ways might a person’s culture impact their response to mental illness? Consider, for example, how religiousness/spirituality might intertwine with a person’s conceptualization of wellness and illness.

  1. I think that there is so much stigma associated with mental illness due to mental illness being so much less studied than physical illnesses. In the history of medicine, physical illnesses have obviously been studied for a much longer period of time than mental illnesses because you can see physical illnesses with your eye and mental illnesses have to be described by patients subjectively. I think it is also really hard for people to look inward and recognize that there may be something wrong with their thought process or something mentally is wrong instead of just being able to look down and see an injury. Factors that could contribute to self stigma is putting too much pressure on yourself to be perfect which then increases stress levels and challenges a person’s abilities to cope. Sometimes people are really hard on themselves when they do not think or act like other people do naturally and have a really hard time accepting that and attributing it to their mental illnesses. 
  2. Some cultures value being very strong and not showing weakness such as asian culture and the culture of toxic masculinity in America. When people are discouraged from expressing their emotions it can lead to emotional distress and can be harmful to a person’s mental health. It is not healthy for a person to bottle up emotions and force themselves to not feel those emotions freely. Religions may attribute certain emotions to being harmful and restrict people from seeking medical help and instead seek spiritual help. This can be detrimental if the mental illness could successfully be treated with therapy, medication, etc. Sometimes people only associate physical wellness with being healthy but a healthy person has healthy physical wellness and mental wellness.