A stigma to me is when society labels others because they are “different”. Many stigmas are used in a negative way, which causes the person receiving the stigmatism to distance themselves. I think that there is so much stigma around mental illness because I feel like more now than ever our society tries to make every one perfect. It is so important to follow certain images and do things a certain way. I think this image creates both a stigma but is also one of the causes of mental illness. I think that also mental illness is always talked about in a negative way and no one is educated properly on mental illnesses. In many cases mental illness portrays the person as being bad or harmful. I feel that if people educated themselves about mental illnesses there would be less of a stigma associated. Self-stigma to me is how someone views themselves due to the public eye. To me, social media seems to play a huge role in self-stigma. Every image that someone scrolls past creates self-stigma. Because of society’s big opinion, many people who have a mental illness start to believe every misconception that is said about them. 

I think that culture plays a role in response to mental illness. Culture is usually a big part of someone’s life. Cultural response to ones mental health depends on the values and beliefs of that culture. I think that if someone has a mental illness and is also from a certain culture, it can make discussing the mental illness easier or harder. Some cultures are more accepting than others. A person may not want to open up about their mental illness because they may be scared of the reaction they will receive because of their religion, etc. Opening up and asking for help can be hard for people to do because of the constant stigmas surrounding mental illness. Culture can be another barrier when asking for help. Certain cultures can make it hard to get the treatment that one might need or the person with the mental illness might be considered an embarrassment.