From the sky to the earth: Understanding the lived experiences of clients with psychiatric disorders of stigma

The global prevalence of stigma associated with psychiatric disorders is undeniable. People with psychiatric disorders continue to suffer a great deal of prejudice, discrimination, and stigma from the mainstream of the community. Hence, this human disability is a global emergency and requires immediate emprise and long-term actions. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the stigma phenomenon based on the experiences of patients with psychiatric disorders.

This research is a qualitative study of the Hermeneutic phenomenology in Ibn-e-Sina Psychiatric Hospital in Mashhad-Iran. In the qualitative phase, 12 clients with psychiatric disorders were selected through the purposive sampling. Data were analyzed by the interpretive methods of Dickelman, Allen, and Tanner (1989).

In this study, one constitutive pattern titled "from the sky to the earth" and 6 themes and 23 sub-themes of the phenomenon under study were discovered. Themes include Family, suffering nest; Society, the end of darkness; Psychiatric hospital; unsafe place, Inexpressive Media, Broken personality; and Vortex of stigma.

The findings demonstrated that clients with psychiatric disorders received stigma from multiple sources that have shadowed their various areas of life and have led to adverse outcomes.