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Stigma and disclosing one's mental illness to family and friends
Nicolas Rüsch1, Elaine Brohan, Jheanell Gabbidon
1Department of Psychiatry II, University of Ulm, Parkstrasse 11, 89073, Ulm, Germany, nicolas.ruesch@uni-ulm.de.
Purpose:
People with mental illness face the dilemma whether or not to disclose their condition. We examined stigma variables and their relationship with comfort disclosing.
Methods:
Comfort with disclosure, well-being, symptoms and aspects of experiencing and reacting to stigma were assessed among 202 individuals with mental illness.
Results:
Controlling for symptoms, greater comfort disclosing one's mental illness was associated with lower anticipated discrimination and lower stigma stress; more comfort disclosing was related to greater well-being.
Conclusions:
Anticipated discrimination as an external threat and stigma-related stress as an internal process may reduce comfort with disclosure and could be targeted in interventions.
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