Stigmas speak to the idea of difference and how difference shames us and those we know.

Public stigma
Stereotype Negative belief about a group (e.g., dangerousness, incompetence, character weakness)

Prejudice Agreement with belief and/or negative emotional reaction (e.g., anger, fear)

Discrimination Behavior response to prejudice (e.g., avoidance, withhold employment and housing opportunities, withhold help)

Self-stigma
Stereotype Negative belief about the self (e.g., character weakness, incompetence)

Prejudice Agreement with belief, negative emotional reaction (e.g., low self-esteem, low self-efficacy)

Discrimination Behavior response to prejudice (e.g., fails to pursue work and housing opportunities)

Understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness. World Psychiatry. Feb 2002; 1(1): 16–20.
PMCID: PMC1489832

I had people saying 'it's all in your head'. Do you honestly think I want to feel this way?

Results of two independent factor analyses of the survey responses of more than 2000 English and American citizens parallel these findings (19,33):
- fear and exclusion: persons with severe mental illness should be feared and, therefore, be kept out of most communities;
- authoritarianism: persons with severe mental illness are irresponsible, so life decisions should be made by others;
- benevolence: persons with severe mental illness are childlike and need to be cared for."

World Psychiatry. 2002 Feb; 1(1): 16–20.
PMCID: PMC1489832
Understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness
PATRICK W CORRIGAN and AMY C WATSON

I can understand why some people might look at me and say, 'What's she got to be depressed about?' I get that a lot in Britain, where mental health issues seem to be a big taboo.

I cut myself up really badly with the lid of a tin can. They took me to the emergency room, but I couldn’t tell the doctor what I had done to cut myself—I didn’t have any memory of it. The ER doctor was convinced that dissociative identity disorder didn’t exist. . . . A lot of people involved in mental health tell you it doesn’t exist. Not that you don’t have it, but that it doesn’t exist.