Mental illness stigma can lead to feelings of shame and self-consciousness. It can negatively impact help-seeking as well as early detection and prevention. Standing up to mental health stigma is an important way to support your own mental health and give a voice to those who are suffering in silence.

Race, ethnicity, and culture are embedded in social relationships and as such play a role in shaping attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

• Blame.
• Stereotypes of Dangerousness and Unpredictability.
• Knowledge about Mental and Substance Use Disorders.
• Contact and Experience.
• Media Portrayals.
• Race, Ethnicity, and Culture.

Unfortunately, stigma surrounding mental health is still common. While stigma is not limited to mental conditions, attitudes towards psychiatric illnesses tend to be more negative than that toward medical conditions.

Join a support group. Some local and national groups, such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), offer local programs and internet resources that help reduce stigma by educating people who have mental illness, their families and the general public.

Seven Things You Can Do to Reduce Stigma

1. Know the facts. Educate yourself about mental illness including substance use disorders.
2. Be aware of your attitudes and behaviour.
3. Choose your words carefully.
4. Educate others.
5. Focus on the positive.
6. Support people.
7. Include everyone.

Regardless of your upbringing or moral code, many factors can raise your risk of becoming addicted to alcohol and other drugs. Your genetics, environment, medical history, and age all play a role. Certain types of drugs, and methods of using them, are also more addictive than others.

No single treatment is appropriate for everyone. Matching treatment settings, interventions, and services to an individual’s particular problems and needs is critical to his or her ultimate success in returning to productive functioning in the family, workplace, and society.

In general, treatment engagement refers to the process of initiating and sustaining the client’s participation in the ongoing treatment process. Engagement can involve such enticements as providing help by procuring social services such as food, shelter, and medical services.

The Engagement Stage of Treatment is the second stage in the Substance Abuse Treatment Scale (SATS). Early Active Treatment: The client is engaged in treatment and has reduced substance use for more than the past month, but still meets criteria for a substance use disorder during this period of reduction.

The Three Phases of Addiction Binge and Intoxication – People begin to use a drug and experience a euphoric high as a result. Withdrawal and Negative Effects– Intoxication caused by use of a drug can lead to physical discomfort, anxiety, or distress when that drug is no longer present in a person’s body.