Anxiety disorder
Stigma

People with an anxiety disorder may be challenged by prejudices and stereotypes held by other people, most likely as a result of misconceptions around anxiety and anxiety disorders. Misconceptions found in a data analysis from the National Survey of Mental Health Literacy and Stigma include: (1) many people believe anxiety is not a real medical illness; and (2) many people believe that people with anxiety could turn it off if they wanted to. For people experiencing the physical and mental symptoms of an anxiety disorder, stigma and negative social perception can make an individual less likely to seek treatment.

Prejudice that some people with mental illness turn against themselves is called self-stigma.

There is no explicit evidence for the exact cause of stigma towards anxiety. Stigma can be divided by social scale, into the macro, intermediate, and micro levels. The macro-level marks society as a whole with the influence of mass media. The intermediate level includes healthcare professionals and their perspectives. The micro-level details the individual's contributions to the process through self-stigmatization.

Stigma can be described in three conceptual ways: cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. This allows for differentiation between stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.
detectable_content:number_placeholders[8], combination:two_responses