Running Head: MENTAL ILLNESS STIGMA EFFECT ON BEHAVIOR

Mental Illness Stigmas Effect on the Behavior Towards Those Who Have Mentally Illness
Cesia V. Pinedo
ENC1102

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Mental Illness Stigmas Effect on the Behavior Towards Those Who Have Mentally Illness
Looking back on a persons first exposure to mental illness, many could recall shudderinducing images. For example, one of the most popular villains in comic book history, the Joker,
very openly deals with his mental illness in a very toxic way by murdering people for pure
enjoyment. With a sinister smile and a personality to match, the picture depicted of mental illness
begins. Having such a popular series for kids display such a dark image of a person dealing with
mental illness can create a lasting impression on a childs view that stay with them throughout
their life.
Over recent decades, the topic of mental illness stigmas seems to have grabbed the
attention of those in the health science profession. The views towards the mentally ill have been
changing throughout the years but some deeply instilled beliefs still linger today, causing there to
be a need for the destruction of these stigmas. Over the past few years the stigma of the mentally
ill has been evolving with the improvement of technology and better understanding of
diagnosing patients. Despite the advance, I will be looking at the impact these stigmas have on
the way people act towards those with mental illness. While some professional have looked into
the affect stigmas have more based on personal experiences of those who have been diagnosed
with a mental illness, my research will look into ways that stigmas of mental illness can affect
the behaviors towards those who are mentally ill.
When the issues of how to deal with the mentally ill arises there can be these responses,
the beneficial outcome would be more attention towards helping those who have problems they
cannot control on their own bringing awareness to the needs they have, on the other side of this it
could cause the development of negative stereotypes for those with mental illness. In recent

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years, the medias depiction of the mentally ill is that of a subject that is not being properly dealt
with. With different influences surrounding people, stigmas can be shaped into non-accurate
representations at times. Due to this there are many ways that mental illness are viewed. The
mindsets people I have decided to look into are being fearful of them, viewing them as unstable,
and seeing them as any other person without a mental health problem. Each of these mindsets
develop separate attitudes and behaviors towards those with mental health issues and in order to
reduce the stigma and discrimination I propose to educate the public of the issue.

Three different behaviors

Fearful
There is a common belief of fearing what is unknown to them and much like this
concept, people seem to view the mentally ill with great precaution as they do not know how to
understand them. All the information that becomes readily available to them is what they see and
how it shapes the way they view issues (Hiday, 1995). In the case of mental illness, there have
been many portrayals of negative connotations associated with it appearing in many places in the
media. These can stem from early exposure to a fear of what extreme mental illness can bring.
When mainstream media shows mental illness characters in a particular light, there is no surprise
to the reaction people develop towards mental illness. Hiday shows the history of literature and
the affects it had on the views of the public on mental illness (Hiday, 1995) creating the existing
stigmas of the time and the social context behind many of these beliefs. Through the use of a
visual model, Hiday describes Linking Social Stratification with Mental Illness and Violence
by displaying certain characteristics and traits and how they connect to the next trait in mental
illness. This model showed the negative traits, such as aggression and antisocial personality, and

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situations, like substance abuse, that can come from mental illness, hence furthering the belief of
fearing the mentally ill.
In addition to the history of fictional stories, there are the real life examples of violence
seen on the news, where there are mass shootings with the headlines of mentally disturbed
people being untreated. In a study done by McGinty, Webster, and Barry (2014), they confirm the
negative effects of the medias focus on mental illness in response to the mass shooting that
happened in 2012. This leads to the stigma that the mentally ill are more prone to being violent.
In response to this information, there have been studies showing the correlation between mental
illness and violence (Friedman, 2006; Torrey, 1994). In Friedmans (2006) personal example
where he was treating a patient with schizophrenia, the patient had endangered the lives of many
on call that day including Friedman. This caused Friedman to release his personal belief that he
is now extremely cautious around his patients with mental illnesses. This view causes there to be
a fear of the mentally ill community. This kind of thought process has led to the investigation of
the impact of mental illness on crime in a case study done by Fazel, Grann, and Psych (2006). In
the case study, the data collected suggested that patients with severe mental illness commit one in
20 violent crimes. This information feeds the stigma that creates a fear for the mentally ill, with
examples like these people can see mental illness as something to be scared of in others.
Distant
On the other hand, the stigma the mentally ill are unstable people causes there to be a
disdain for them. This leads to different types of discriminations and isolating those who have
mental illness. Since the public doesnt know how to deal with people who have mental illness, it
is easier for them to want to have nothing to do with them. In Attitudes Toward Mental Health -

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35 States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico (2007), researchers ask questions on how
people felt about the mentally ill. This showed that those with mental illness did not believe that
others viewed them as caring and that people were not sympathetic to them. It also showed that
some people believe that with mental illness you cannot live a normal life. In these two findings,
one can see that these people view mental illness as something that separates them from
normality of others, so much so that even people who are diagnosed with a mental illness are
expectant of a negative result when others think of them.
In the examination of the prevalence of mental illness in prison, it showed high numbers
of people, 34.6% in a total of seven states, in prison who were tested were diagnosed with having
some sort of mental illness (Diamond, Wang, Holzer III & Thomas, 2001). By showing that
many people have mental illness in prisons, as well as other violent actions, the stigma that
mentally ill people are unstable causes some people to not want to interact with those who have
mental illness. In Corrigans article (2007) on How clinical diagnosis might exacerbate the
stigma of mental illness he talks a bit about how when diagnosed people start to change the way
they think about them and how they act around them. This, as well as him talking about the
misguided notion that there are no recoveries from mental illness, shows that because people are
not knowledgeable on the subject of mental illness they do their best to stay away from people
who are diagnosed with it.
People were shown to regard the mentally ill with some sort of discrimination because of
fear of not knowing what they could end up doing. In Ilgen, Zivin, McCammon, and Valenstein
study (2008), they saw the link between mental health risk factors and suicide and how the need
to assess for gun access among high-risk individuals should be monitored. This shows by having
mental illness, they are at a higher risk for doing something unstable. Looking at evidence like

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this people can think that with mental illness there is a bigger risk of becoming close to someone
who you can never be sure what it is they will do. The stigmas make it so that when thinking of
mental illness, people think of the risky behavior they have, to the point where they can view
them as a threat to themselves and everyone around them.
Normal
Contrary to these findings, there is the belief that the mentally ill should be treated
normally and that the stigma currently formed should be disintegrated. Parle (2012) published
her experience with mental illness stigma in a publishing of Nursing Times, where she
emphasizes that professionals often take this perspective as they are already informed of the true
dangers if any, and they advocate by showing reasons why the stigma has so many harsh impacts
on those with mental illness. The authors Dinos, Stevens, Serfaty, Weich, and King (2004) agree
with this and add on this topic some of the personal experience of those who live with mental
illness to show how the behaviors that the public possesses hurts. By appealing to our human
side, articles like these give more of understanding to the pain that mentally ill people go through
due to the stigmas placed one them. Using this reasoning, the authors then go on to say that we
should not let these stigma affect the way we treat the mentally ill so that experiences like the
ones they mention do not occur anymore. In a study done on discrimination towards people
mental illness, the results showed that when someone had previously been familiar with someone
with a mental illness the more likely they were willing to help someone else with psychiatric
disorder (Corrigan, Markowitz, Watson, Rowan, & Kubiak, 2003). This study shows the point
that the more people know about truth that pertains to mental illness, as oppose to only knowing
the stigma society presents, the more comfortable around mentally ill people they are and treat
them normally.

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In a study on the victimization in women and men with severe mental illness, it showed
the difficult parts of life that come along with having mental illness (Goodman & et 2001).
These type of results are common among people with mental illness, it causes deeper problems
in families and lives as such a negative stigma is difficult to overcome. Hinshaw (2007)
examined the long-standing tendency to stigmatize those with mental illness and showed the
affects that had on real people. He suggested that as a whole we should enlightened social
policies that encourage contact with those afflicted with mental illness, media coverage
emphasizing the underlying humanity they all possess, and education for the families of the
affected. Through these suggestion, one can see when people are educated on mental illness the
less likely they are to follow the stigma society places in front of them and more likely they are
to treat people with mental illness normally.

Conclusion
In summation, mental illness stigmas bring out different responsive actions towards those
with mental illness. All the responses correlate to what knowledge they have had on the topic
prior, whether it is first-hand experience or what travels down the grapevine. Where there are
people with mental illness who commit crime and/or act violently, the behaviors of acting fearful
and extremely cautious to those with mental illness appeared. The lack of understanding and
knowledge on the mental illness topic creates the behaviors of those who discriminate and
isolated those with mental illness in order to not have to deal with them. Finally there are the
people who know of the stigma and still treat people with mental illness as normally as they can
because they are better informed then the previous responses.

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After viewing all the perspectives, it is clear that stigmas on mental illness are still too
prevalent despite the recent advances. However, because there have been many issues that have
been raised due to mental illness it is still important to have precaution around certain cases.
While fearing and being excessively caution of the problems of mental illness are counterproductive, there must still an understanding of the issues that people with mental issues face in
order to provide the proper assistance they require. Mental illness severity can be dealt with and
patients can improve with the proper precautions. However if there is no change in the extreme
stigmas place on them, it will be more difficult for people to seek proper help in the earlier
stages. The most important action to proceed with is educating to the public that there are harsh
backlashes to generalizing issues with mental health when the range of severity differs in each
person. Once there is a better understanding of how mental illness affect each person differently,
there will be an improvement in the interactions between them and society.

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References
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