THE BURDEN OF STIGMA IN HELP-SEEKING 3
Running head: THE BURDEN OF STIGMA IN HELP SEEKING 1
The Burden of Stigma in Help-Seeking
Chelsey Nettey
Walden University
6/6/21
The Burden of Stigma in Help-Seeking
Corrigan’s Model of the Stages of Stigma and His Recommendations
Corrigan’s model illustrates discrimination and stigma among individuals with mental illnesses (Göpfert et al., 2019). According to the model, there are different stages of stigma. In this case, stigma can be categorized into two types. Public stigma involves negative talks made by people around an individual with mental illness that are against the person. On the other hand, self-stigma involves an individual with mental illness taking negative talks of people around him or her, making him or her suffer more. In such situations, the person with mental illness should have some people to support him or her to avoid further progression of the condition. Family members should be the major supporters of the person with mental illness to make him or her feel comfortable communicating with them. If the mentally ill individual lacks such support, he or she develops anxiety since the person has no one to express his or her feelings.
According to Corrigan’s model, individuals with mental illness undergo four stages of stigma. These include stereotype awareness, personal agreement, self-concurrence-application, and harm to self (Göpfert et al., 2019). However, Corrigan’s recommendation of stigma is to challenge the condition through empowering people to ensure that they have a positive goal-setting environment. Empowering such individuals to improve their self-efficacy and self-esteem enables them to develop high self-esteem to meet their set goals. Corrigan added that empowerment is the most significant aspect that can reduce stigma. Besides, the stigma experienced by an individual with mental illness can be reduced when other people express the feeling of the person to important people. This aspect significantly enables the mentally ill individual to reduce his or her stigma.
Whether Delle’s Experience follows that Model
The TED talk made by Delle appears to be much interesting since he talks about the things that are experienced in day-to-day life among individuals with mental illnesses. Based on the information that Delle presents in the talk, his experience aligns with Corrigan’s model of stigma. Delle talks about the experience that he went through based on how the public reacted to him and his friend as they were suffering from mental illness. When Delle was speaking, it is well evident that he was in the initial stage regarding stereotype awareness. Delle was in the initial stage because he talks about how he experienced anxiety due to how the public treated him, making his functioning to be impaired. Delle indicates how he used to lay on a bed and cry, which indicates that he had not yet reached the second stage of personal agreement. If he had already attained this stage, he could have accepted himself the way he was and could never be crying.
According to Delle, he was not aware that he had internalized stigma associated with his mental illness until when he visited a specialist. That is when Delle realized why he never felt comfortable when people talked to his family members or friends about his mental issue. As an African man, Delle indicated how African men are not expected to display their suffering emotions but deal with their own problems regardless of how severe they are. This made Delle live on believing that African men do not suffer since he had never seen them experiencing their suffering even when they were in pain. However, when he experienced mental illness, he realized that men display their suffering in privacy.
Delle’s Reports about His Experiences with Both Types of Stigma
Predomination of Stigma in Delle’s Talks
Based on how Delle illustrates his suffering, self-stigma predominate public stigma. Delle indicates that he had to suffer internally because, as an African man, he was not supposed to display his feelings to people or show his suffering emotion, but rather deal with his problems as a man. Since he did not want help from a professional, he thought that the primary physician was crazy when he advised him to seek professional help.
Delle’s Values or Beliefs Challenged by His Internalizations
The person aspect that was challenged through Delle’s internalizations was acceptance. Delle could not believe that he can seek mental help due to his mental suffering. He indicated that when one has a health issue such as pneumonia, he or she can seek medical attention from a hospital (Delle, 2017). However, anxiety and stress are not conditions that require medical support.
Delle’s Strengths
Based on Delle’s talks, there are several strengths displayed. One of them involves openness. Regardless of the situation that Delle was in, he is ready to speak to the public about how he experienced it. He indicated that mental illness is a health issue just like other illnesses, and therefore, the mentally ill person should seek a mental professional.
Primary Benefit of Delle’s Diagnosis
The primary benefit of Delle’s condition is that it has enabled him to learn and teach other people. What he learned enables him to share his experience for other people not to suffer like him. Regardless of his condition, he was the only one who supported his friend with Schizophrenia.
The difference in Delle’s Experience if He Was from another Culture
There would be no difference in Delle’s experience if he was from another culture. This is because in almost all cultures, men do not like to display their suffering (Crowe et al., 2018). They usually like to deal with their problems alone.
References
Crowe, A., Mullen, P. R., & Littlewood, K. (2018). Self‐stigma, mental health literacy, and health outcomes in integrated care. Journal of Counseling & Development, 96(3), 267-277.
Delle, S., (2017). There’s no shame in taking care of your mental health. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/sangu_delle_there_s_no_shame_in_taking_care_of_your_mental_health
Göpfert, N. C., Conrad von Heydendorff, S., Dreßing, H., & Bailer, J. (2019). Applying Corrigan’s progressive model of self-stigma to people with depression. PloS one, 14(10), e0224418.