The role of internalized self stigma on self esteem and attitude toward seeking professional psychological help among psychiatric patients

Stigmatized individuals have been found to face a variety of social and emotional consequences, including social withdrawal, loss of productivity, lowered self-esteem, and increased levels of negative affect. Stigmatization is now recognized as perhaps the central issue facing all who are attempting to understand, prevent, and treat mental illness. This study aimed to assess the extent of self-stigma level among psychiatric patients and investigate the role of self-stigma on self-esteem and attitude toward seeking professional help among psychiatric patients. This study followed a descriptive co relational design. The present study was conducted at two setting: psychiatric inpatient wards at "Tanta Mental Health Hospital", as well as in The Psychiatric Inpatient Ward of "Tanta University Hospital.The target population, a convenience sample of 85 psychiatric inpatients were recruited at inpatient psychiatric wards . Three tools were used to collect data for the study, Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale, Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. Results of the study indicated that 70% of studied patients have problematic internalized stigma, patients reported moderate to severe level and self- stigma played a detrimental role in undermining self-esteem, attitude toward seeking professional psychological help among studied subjects in which patients whose higher score in internalizes self -stigma were more likely to have lower Self-Esteem and have tendency toward negative Attitudes toward Seeking Professional psychological Help. The study recommended that there is an urgent need to develop anti-stigma campaigns dealing with mental illness.