Research

Help-Seeking

There are lots of different factors that encourage help-seeking behaviors, such as being distressed, being ready to change, taking a compassionate stance toward themselves, prioritizing values like tolerance and social justice, believing that therapy is beneficial, and being confident they can “do well” in therapy.

In contrast, research has shown that some factors tend to be barriers, such as holding stigmatizing views about therapy, prioritizing materialistic values, holding onto traditionally masculine gender norms, and believing that therapy would threaten a person’s self-esteem.

Identity

There are several different processes that influence who a person is and what that person does: personal values, life-goals, narcissism, self-compassion, self-efficacy, self-affirmation, self-esteem, mindfulness, rumination, stigma, career interests, social media use, psychological distress, empathy…phew, that’s just some of them.

One theory that is interesting to me is self-affirmation theory (Sherman & Cohen, 2006; Steele, 1988). According to this theory, people are motivated to maintain a positive view of who they are, but threats (anything from a strange look, or a microaggression, or a bad grade on an exam) can challenge these positive views. One way that people maintain their positive self-worth is by reflecting on important, positive aspects of their identity. This act of reminding one’s self of positive and important aspects of one’s self is called self-affirmation, and it can happen in a research lab (i.e., experimentally manipulated), or it can occur more naturally in everyday life. Self-affirmation is linked to all sorts of different outcomes (usually positive, but not always), and has been shown to reduce peoples’ tendency to respond to “threatening” information in defensive ways.

Seeking help is a difficult thing for many people. Here are some of the ways that stigma can affect decisions to seek help, and experiences when getting help:

• Structural Stigma. The institutions in a society have rules, policies, and procedures that can restrict the rights of people with mental health concerns, and this can reduce their opportunities for living a full and fruitful life (Corrigan, 2004). Governmental agencies, schools, community groups, and private companies may have policies that make things more difficult for people with mental health concerns. For example, medical students often experience mental health concerns while completing their demanding programs, but they may experience discrimination if they disclose their mental health concerns while applying for residency programs (Aggarwal et al., 2020).
• Public Stigma. The broader public views having a mental illness (and/or needing psychological help) as shameful (Corrigan, 2001). This can be problematic. A person might be discriminated against if it is found out they have a mental illness or are seeking psychological help. Additionally, awareness of broader stigmatization from society may prompt a person to hide their mental illness and avoid seeking help.
• Self-Stigma. When a person begins to believe society’s stigmatizing beliefs about mental illness and seeking psychological help–it can be especially detrimental. Now, a person is not only aware of negative stereotypes and beliefs about mental illness and psychological help-seeking, but they believe those ideas and apply them to themselves (Vogel et al., 2006). For example, they might believe things like, “I am shameful because I have a mental health concern and need psychological help.” A person might feel demoralized and experience an effect called the “why try” effect (Corrigan et al., 2016), and they might avoid seeking the very type of help that can address their mental health concerns (Lannin & Bible, 2022).
• Perceived Provider Stigma. Sometimes mental health providers can subtly or not-so-subtly put down their clients and disempower those who are trying to address mental health concerns (Wang, 2018). Unfortunately, their clients often pick up on it. Clients can believe that their provider stigmatizes their condition and views them as shameful. Obviously, this has negative effects on their experiences with that mental health care provider.