United Against Stigma

People living with mental health disorders can experience stigma from families, neighbors, and healthcare professionals themselves. In some cases, they can internalize negative messages and stereotypes and apply them to themselves, known as self-stigma.⁴

Stigma leads to social isolation and discrimination, which impacts a person’s ability to earn an income, gain access to quality care, be part of their community, and recover from their mental health disorder.⁵

Rather than risk potential discrimination, many people with mental health disorders choose to go through it alone. Ultimately, stigma and discriminatory attitudes and behaviors can negatively impact individuals with mental health disorders and hinder their recovery.

Understanding public stigma is the first step to developing stigma reduction efforts. 

Public stigma is defined here as “the way in which people in a given community or society view and act towards people with mental health disorders.”⁷

A common way of understanding public stigma is to identify three related components: knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. The knowledge component usually refers to a lack of detailed knowledge in society about mental health disorders, but can also arise due to misinformation.⁸

Stigmatizing attitudes refer to negative emotional reactions towards people with mental health disorders.⁹

Behavior refers to the rejection and social exclusion of people with mental health disorders by discrimination, which can cause harm by being anticipated as well as being experienced.¹⁰

These negative attitudes and discriminatory behaviors can create and reinforce misconceptions about the prevalence, process, and causes of mental health disorders. Such misconceptions can include beliefs about the dangerousness or incompetence of people with mental health disorders, or the belief that these disorders cannot be treated.¹¹

Stigma related to mental health disorders is multifaceted with a multitude of consequences that are often underestimated.

The Lancet Commission on Stigma and Mental Health divides the impact of stigma into four domains: personal impacts, structural impacts, impact on health and social care, and social and economic impacts. Globally, people living with mental health disorders commonly experience at least some of the following restrictions:¹²

Stigma related to mental health disorders can be alleviated through disease awareness campaigns.

Stigmatizing language is a barrier to treatment for people living with mental health disorders.

Stigmatizing language reflects and reinforces negative attitudes and behavior toward people living with mental health disorders. Having open and respectful conversations with people living with mental health disorders is the first step to overturning harmful discourse.

The Lancet Commission on Ending Stigma and Discrimination in Mental Health recommends using person-first language when speaking to or about a person living with a mental health disorder. Using person-first language puts the individual at the center, not their disorder.¹⁶

As a leader in brain health, Lundbeck will continue to support mental health awareness and education efforts to eradicate stigma and enable policy and societal change.

At Lundbeck, we work to mobilize efforts to eliminate stigma and normalize discussions about brain health and its associated disorders. These include global awareness-raising campaigns on brain health promotion and stigma reduction, such as Brain Awareness Week and World Mental Health Day, as well as in-depth educational campaigns targeted at policymakers, healthcare professionals, and the public in general.

At Lundbeck, we are wholly committed to restoring brain health and supporting people impacted by brain disorders. Our business activities, advocacy community engagement, and interactions with policymakers and non-governmental organizations are guided by clarity of purpose: we are tirelessly dedicated to restoring brain health, so every person can be their best.