PSYC 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 16.1: Bibliotherapy, Blind Experiment, Dorothea Dix

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1000
• Professor: Benjamin Giguere

Document Summary

2/3 of people with mental health issues do not seek help from the mental health system. Even when people do seek therapy, about half of them significantly delay doing so after first become aware of their mental health issues, often for years. Disorders themselves are inherently ambiguous: there is no line between mentally healthy and mentally ill so a person may believe that they are sad and not depressed, or stressed, not that they have an anxiety disorder. People very commonly are motivated to not see themselves as mentally ill, so much so that they minimalize their symptoms, basically tricking themselves and others to think that they are healthier than they really are. A label could feel like a sign of weakness or a person failing. People may be concerned that others may view or treat them negatively, or be unwilling to risk the social stigma that they fear might embarrass themselves or their families.