*2.2.3. Professional stigma*

**2.2. Types of stigma**

90 Anxiety Disorders - From Childhood to Adulthood

*2.2.1. Social stigma*

*2.2.2. Self-stigmatization*

**Figure 2.** Social and self-stigma.

(**Figure 2**). Social stigmatization is the most common.

There are several categories of stigmatization in our society, and beyond any description, stigmatization has been decisive for negative experiences at both macro and micro level. The three main types of Stigma include social stamping, self-stamping, and professional stamping

According to Merriam Webster, social stigmatization indicates that (or dissatisfaction with) a person or group that is perceived by the other members of a society and serving to distinguish them is socially unapproved. Social theorists view such a stigma as particularly effective. A social group of the past is dependent on social information structures learned by most members [22–24]. In American society, there is a distinction between physical illness and mental illness and is based on the misperception that mental illness is a result of having a weak character or making a heretical choice [25, 26]. Social stigma against mental illness rests on this misperception [27]. This differentiation, which affects consumers, stakeholders, and providers, contributes to division and allows social stigmatization against mental illness, resulting in discrimination in diagnosis, treatment, and social perception. As a result of this social paradigm, people with symptoms are less

Individuals are generally determined by their behavior, and unfortunately, behavioral problems associated with mental disorders result in poor self-esteem, limited participation, and reduced treatment. In addition, mental health results in avoidance of participation in services [22]. One of the difficulties of social stigmatization is that people who think that others perceive themselves differently perceive themselves differently. It is likely that the self may be stigmatized [23]. Considering that stigma is a social structure, culture significantly influences stigmatization. Culture expresses common behaviors, beliefs, values orientations, and symbols that affect a group of people's own norms and practices. These sociocultural norms and practices also define the meaning, practice, and expression of the stigmatization in different populations [28, 29].

According to the literature, self-stigma is associated with perceived stigma. Persons suffering from mental illness will become self-imposed when they acknowledge that the people are

likely to accept mental illness and receive appropriate mental health care [25–27].

Professional stigmatization refers to the fact that health care workers cause stigmatization of individual with mental disease and strengthen them. Healthcare workers do not want to be perceived as stigmatizing individual with mental illness suffering from mental illness. And for this reason, they can easily reject stigmatizing behaviors and beliefs. For this reason, it is important for professionals to become more aware of how the stigma can be predicted while working with individual with mental illnesses. Professional stigmatization may develop in a manner similar to the development of social stigmatization in the general population. Because a professional does not recognize the lack of appropriate treatment of a disabled client, he may be deprived of his rights and the individual with mental disease may become more vulnerable. This may lead them to terminate the treatment or to be treated elsewhere. Finally, professional stigmatization directed at the individual with mental disease or provider's own illness creates an obstacle to the health of the individual by preventing appropriate treatment. It may also affect the acceptance of disorders by the healthcare worker's own impersonal beliefs [24].
