Pray Harder: Stigma and Support-Seeking Among Religious Persons With Mental Illness

An expanse of research has demonstrated that persons with mental illness (PWMI) tend to avoid formal psychological treatment.One possible explanation for this failure to pursue formal treatment is the tendency of religious individuals to construe mental illness as spiritual in nature, leading religious communities to actively discourage emotional and psychological help-seeking through non-spiritual means. The present study examined help-seeking behaviors among religious PWMI by examining the impact of religiosity and gender on the relationship between mental illness stigma and help-seeking behaviors. Results indicate that higher levels of perceived stigma and religious salience relate to higher reported indirect support-seeking (ISS). Moreover, only religious salience appears to significantly relate to ISS among men, whereas perceived mental illness stigma significantly predicts direct and indirect support-seeking behaviors among women.