Experienced and perceived stigma among people suffering from schizophrenia

Purpose: The assessment of subjectively experienced and perceived stigma by people suffering from schizophrenia. Methods: The study included 64 people diagnosed with schizophrenia from the Masovia Province. The study used Angermeyer’s Questionnaire. Results: The respondents definitely expect negative social attitudes towards people who are mentally ill. The sense of anticipated stigma among respondents is high in every area (contacts with people, employment, relationships, social perceptions of mentally ill people, structural discrimination). The results show that some respondents experienced both rejection due to illness and also positive acceptance in their immediate environment. Respondents believed that it is better to keep the illness to themselves to avoid being exposed to rejection (72%) and that people respond negatively to people with mental illness (70%). They also believed that the majority of healthy people avoid contact with sick people (70%), and that employers are reluctant to hire them (72%). The majority of respondents believed that other people do not want to have mentally ill partners (77%), 59% of respondents had experienced rejection due to mental illness, 53% had the experience of all social contacts being broken with them for the same reason. In the area of employment, 39% of respondents declared that they had failed to be recruited because of the illness. Conclusions: Respondents definitely expect negative social attitudes in various areas of their lives. Most often they experience stigma in the area of contacts with other people.