Mental Health Stigma and Help-Seeking Behavior

Mental health stigma encompasses negative beliefs, attitudes and behaviours directed towards individuals experiencing psychological distress or diagnosed disorders. It acts as a formidable barrier to timely help-seeking, shaping both whether and how people access support. Stigma can be conceptualised at three interrelated levels: public stigma (societal stereotypes and discrimination), self-stigma (internalisation of negative attitudes), and structural stigma (institutional policies that limit resources and opportunities). These phenomena interact with individual factors—such as mental health literacy, cultural norms and previous experiences of discrimination—to influence decisions about professional or peer support. Help-seeking behaviour itself is multifaceted, ranging from informal disclosure to friends and family, through to formal psychiatric or psychological treatment. Globally, efforts to reduce stigma and enhance help-seeking have included educational campaigns, contact-based interventions and training programmes aimed at both the public and target groups (for example, teachers or employers). Emerging evidence underlines the importance of tailored strategies to address the unique needs of diverse populations, as well as sustained longitudinal evaluation to assess lasting impact. Overall, bridging the gap between symptom onset and treatment requires not only clinical innovation but also broader social change to dismantle stigma’s pervasive influence.

Research from Nature Portfolio

No recent Nature Portfolio content available.

Mental Health Stigma and Help-Seeking Behavior publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in mental health stigma and help-seeking behavior across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Public stigma: Societal negative stereotypes and discriminatory behaviours towards people with mental health problems.

Self-stigma: Internalisation of public stigma leading individuals to feel shame or self-blame, which can deter help-seeking.

Structural stigma: Institutional policies and practices that systematically disadvantage people with mental health conditions.

Mental health literacy: Knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders that aid their recognition, management and prevention.

Help-seeking behaviour: Actions taken by individuals to seek assistance for emotional or psychological difficulties, from informal support to professional treatment.

References

1. Understanding young adults’ attitudes towards using AI chatbots for psychotherapy: The role of self-stigma. Computers in Human Behavior Artificial Humans (2024).
2. Systematic review and meta-analysis of Mental Health First Aid training: Effects on knowledge, stigma, and helping behaviour. PLOS ONE (2018).
3. Effect of the Time to Change anti-stigma campaign on trends in mental-illness-related public stigma among the English population in 2003–13: an analysis of survey data. The Lancet Psychiatry (2014).