The article by the Canadian Mental Health Commission was not only an interesting read but it also provided me with a clearer picture of how many different ways stigma can affect one’s life. Although detecting stigma can sometimes be easy, knowing the specific kind of stigma that one is facing is much more difficult. Prior to reading the article, I did not know that stigma was in a sense an umbrella term for all the various forms of stigma that one could be affected by. The 3 kinds of stigma that I was able to find were: Self-stigma, Social- stigma and Structural-stigma.
Although all 3 kinds of stigma play an enormous role in one’s life; self-stigma was one that caught my attention. After reading more about it, I began to reflect on past clients. I …show more content…
I would have never stopped to think that maybe he or she has been suffering from self-stigma, as they may have begun to devalue their life due to society’s perception of what they have been diagnosed with. I think the biggest reason why I would never have considered self-stigma as an option is because when I use to think of stigma I viewed it and believed it to be something external. Stigma was something that someone did to you. For example, someone discriminating against you due to stereotypes of a condition that you have. Or one of the most prominent and reoccurring examples of stigma, where an individual does not seek aid for their condition due the fear that they will be judged by society. Even though the latter example is partly a result of self-stigma due to them devaluing themselves; I would not have thought of it as so. Instead I would have been focused on the external factors. In hindsight it is easy to look back and realize how simple it would have been to ask the individual if their feeling of hopelessness was due to societal views of them rather than trying to