Personal experience: Coming out – the psychotic psychiatrist – an account of the stigmatising experience of psychiatric illness

Abstract

The author presents his own life experience as a patient of psychiatric illness. The author feels proud to be a psychiatrist. Despite often feeling stigmatized by medical colleagues, the author has always derived a great sense of personal reward and satisfaction from my chosen line of work. The author believes psychiatrists are blessed to be in a position to assist people at times of great personal distress and emotional turmoil, often when they are at their most vulnerable. As psychiatrists, we are only too well aware of the stigma and negative attitudes our patients face in society in general. There can be no doubt that many of our patients with severe mental illnesses are marginalized to the fringes of society, often leading their lives in depressing isolation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)