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Stigma Towards Mental Illness Today

if 1 in 5 adults Experiences
Mental Illness,

30 fine-line images of people from a diverse array of age groups, races, and ethnicities. Most are in black, 6 in total (or 1 in 5 of them) are in various shades of purple, blue, or pink.

THEN WHY IS
THE STIGMA
SO STRONG?

STIGMA

leads to...

Discrimination ~ Diagnostic Overshadowing ~ Less Funding Going to Mental Health Care ~ Less Prestige in Mental Health Care Professions ~ Interference With Help-Seeking and Recovery & Treatment Resources ~ Interference With Workforce Development ~ Interference With Societal Productivity ~ Rejection of or Distancing From People Living With Mental Illness ~ Shortage of Mental Health Professionals ~ Societal Unwillingness to Invest in the Mental Health Sector ~ Internalization of Negative Beliefs ~ Loss of Autonomy & Community Living ~ Reduced Social Connections & Support ~ Diminished Self-Esteem & Self-Efficacy ~ Hopelessness ~ Avoidance of Treatment ~ Inhibited Engagement With Providers ~ Exacerbated Mental Illness Symptoms ~ Self-Stigma (Amplified Feelings of Shame, Guilt, etc.) ~ Weakened Resistance to Self-Harm ~ Difficulty/Complications With Dating ~ Practitioner Assumptions About “Med-Seeking”

* Click the effect for sources

Over

Americans live in designated mental health professional shortage areas

120 Million

In 2024, only of adults living with mental illness in the U.S. received treatment.

The same year, only
of young adults 18–25 years old living with mental illness in the U.S. received treatment.

51.1%

49.9%

There is an
average delay of

between the onset of mental illness symptoms and treatment.

11 years

One study reported an

towards schizophrenia and alcoholism in the U.S. from 1996 to 2018, citing an increase in perception of people with schizophrenia as being dangerous and an increase in perceptions of people with alcohol dependence as having “bad character”.

increase in stigma

In 2023, was the

among both the 10-14 and 15-24 age groups in the U.S.

suicide

2nd-most-common
cause of death

From 2015 to 2020,

people shot & killed
by the police had
mental health conditions

1 in 4

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