“Self-stigma is an issue for many, if not all, people with experience of mental illness. When you are struggling to fight the discrimination in your community, how do you deal with the discriminatory voice inside your head?”

One area that I don’t think is spoken about enough is the internal distress and shame that someone feels when diagnosed with mental illness.

I’ve seen quite a few patients lately who are depressed and anxious due to many reasons. Frequently, one of their big areas of concern is the fact that they have a mental illness and what that implies about themselves. They feel weak, vulnerable, useless, helpless and worthless. You stigmatize yourself when you have negative thoughts or feelings towards yourself based on the fact that you have a mental illness.

Why do we stigmatize ourselves?

Negative connotations towards people with mental illness start in your early years. Many individuals currently in their mid-adulthood years grew up in an era where mental illnesses were not discussed. It did not exist, and if it did it was whispered about behind closed doors. We know that experiences you had in childhood affect the way you function in adulthood, and I find it is devastating for many patients when diagnosed with mental illness.

Patients tell me

. ‘I don’t want to disappoint my family.’

. ‘I could never tell them/him/her about this.’

. ‘I feel so embarrassed.’

How can it affect you?

Self-stigmatision can affect you in many ways. You may not apply for a job, or not seek help for yourself or you may avoid relationships. Many patients find it incredibly hard to walk into a psychiatrist’s office or a psychiatric hospital, due to their harsh critic in their head.

I think that by acknowledging what your perceptions of your mental illness may be, allows you to work on acceptance. Accepting yourself for who you are and accepting the fact that you suffer from a mental illness. This realisation can relieve distress, decreasing mood disturbances and anxiety and improving your functioning.