Families of people with severe mental illnesses are often subject to stigma by association. Stigma by association is stigma that occurs by being associated with someone who is themselves stigmatised. In a study conducted in Sweden, it was found that about 35% of the relatives interviewed said that having a relative with a mental illness had at some point prevented them from having company, and 14% said that it had caused them to have suicidal thoughts at some point. Spouses get hit harder than most, with 55% saying that their spouse’s mental illness has prevented them from having company, and 13% (higher than every group except parents) saying that it has caused them to have suicidal thoughts. Additionally, ⅓ of relatives reported having no support in carrying the burden of having a mentally ill relative.
Part of the reason for this is that sometimes relatives are blamed/blame themselves for causing or contributing to the person’s illness. Those who see mental illnesses as being more a product of nurture than nature believe that a person’s family (including parents, siblings, spouses, etc.) are at least partially at fault for their mental illness. Thus, these people develop negative attitudes toward the families of the mentally ill, and as a result are less likely to spend time or offer support to them. Those on the nature side of the debate may attempt to stay away from the families of the mentally ill for fear that ‘they’re all crazy’.
Of course the mentally ill experience stigma directed at them as well. Often, the language used to describe mental illness contributes to this stigma. People who conflate mental illness with terms like ‘schizophrenic’ or ‘psychotic’ are more likely to view mentally ill people as dangerous or ‘crazy’. As a result they subject the mentally ill to stigma and discrimination. People subjected to this kind of stigma often internalise that stigma and the language associated with it, over time coming to believe the things people say or do to them are warranted.
Internalisation isn’t the only way in which discrimination and stigma hurt the mentally ill, it’s simply one of the more insidious ways. Discrimination and stigma affect the mentally ill in various ways including, but not limited to, housing, hiring, and incarceration. Employers who believe a mentally ill person is crazy or dangerous will either a)not hire them or b)invent a reason to fire them if the employer finds out later. Landlords may see those with mental illness as a risk of damaging their property, and thus may not accept someone who they believe to be mentally ill. Those mentally ill people who commit crimes either directly or indirectly because of their illness are more likely to be incarcerated than to be placed into treatment. This puts them in a position where they learn from their fellow inmates how to get better at crime, but never get any help to learn healthy patterns of thought and behaviour.
