Posttraumatic Stress and Stigma in Active‐Duty Service Members Relate to Lower Likelihood of Seeking Support

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common mental health concern for returning service members. Social support is a robust predictor of resiliency and recovery from PTSD; however, barriers to seeking support are understudied. PTSD and anticipated enacted stigma from family and friends were explored as correlates of the likelihood of seeking support among 153 Iraq/Afghanistan U.S. service members. Results showed that PTSD (r = -.31, p < .001) and anticipated enacted stigma (r = -.22, p ≤ .01) were negatively associated with likelihood of seeking support. Post hoc analyses showed that only dysphoria (r = -.32, p < .001) was significantly related to the likelihood of seeking support after accounting for anticipated enacted stigma and other PTSD clusters. Implications of these findings and ways to increase likelihood of seeking support are discussed.

Insomnia brings soldiers into mental health treatment, predicts treatment engagement, and outperforms other suicide-related symptoms as a predictor of major depressive episodes

“…However, since suicidal ideation and suicide-specific hopelessness are likely to be similarly distressing, this finding may instead signal that service members are more willing to endorse agitation and insomnia symptoms on self-report surveys, and, relatedly, are more comfortable seeking out services for these problems. As discussed previously, stigma is a barrier to care among military service members (Vogt 2011;Blais et al 2014;Britt et al 2015), so it is understandable that military personnel may be less likely to seek support for suicide-related hopelessness or perceptions of being burdensome than for sleep problems.…”

“…Although interventions to reduce suicide risk have yielded promising results among military populations (Britton et al 2012;Knox et al 2012;Rudd et al 2015;Trockel et al 2015), many service members remain reluctant to engage with services, often due to stigma, negative beliefs about treatment, and concerns about career impact (Vogt 2011;Blais et al 2014;Britt et al 2015). Thus, efforts must be made to understand patterns and predictors of mental health service use among military personnel, especially those at elevated suicide risk.…”

Self-stigma in PTSD: Prevalence and correlates

“…Our research questions were: 1) Do patients with PTSD report different levels of self-stigma than patients with schizophrenia, and 2) Are levels of self-stigma related to symptom severity in PTSD? We anticipated that levels of alienation, stereotype endorsement, and social withdrawal would be equivalent between groups on the basis of work suggesting significant social withdrawal and isolation in PTSD (Blais and Renshaw, 2013;Blais et al, 2014). We further anticipated that the schizophrenia group would report experiencing more discrimination, given that the symptoms of this group tend to be more identifiable by members of the public, while also reporting being less able to reject stigma, given findings linking cognitive deficits seen in schizophrenia to reduced ability to resist stigma (Nabors et al, 2014).…”

The impact of post‐migration stressors on refugees’ emotional distress and health: A longitudinal analysis

“…Specifically, research indicates that exposure to extreme stressors such as resettlement (Dumper, ) or natural disasters (Banks & Weems, ) can weaken support networks and thus result in lower levels of perceived (and actual) social support from family and friends. In addition, the anticipated stigma of appearing to be weak and vulnerable can discourage individuals from seeking help, even after experiences of trauma and danger (Blais, Renshaw, & Jakupcak, ). Taken together, this work suggests that (a lack of) social support might explain the negative impact of stressors on health (Research Question 2).…”