A patient's perspective on experiencing and managing stigma during crisis-recovery

Background/Objectives: Describing strategies for coping with stigma from a patient's perspective. Methods: Via a first person account, the author relates her experiences of recovery from crisis brought on by bipolar disorder. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role of stigma and stigma management, and their impact on the recovery process. Results: Experiencing stigma is always difficult for a patient. It is even more difficult, when he or she is confronted with it during a crisis, a situation, in which he or she needs help and support, mostly from social contacts. The patient cannot do much to fight stigm…