Many respondents emphasized the idea that psychiatric disorders, compared to physical illnesses, were more likely to trigger feelings of stigmatization and concerns about confidentiality. “I think there’s a stigma attached to psychiatric disorders. I think some of my family might be more willing to have a blood test to see if certain people are predisposed to cancer or something [other] than this mental illness.”“I have no medical illnesses I’m ashamed of. But when it comes to my mental health issues, what I share with my doctor and those professionals is my own personal information. So I think confidentiality is probably one of the foremost important things.”“It’s something to watch out for—that people’s privacy is respected. People could be stigmatized. Other people will look down on them perhaps, knowing —they wouldn’t want to marry them … And sometimes, they’d just be branded as flawed, unfairly perhaps.”
