How can discrimination and stigma affect people with mental illness?

Stigma about mental illness, the negative thoughts and feelings others have about mental health disorders, exists worldwide. In some countries, people with mental illness are constantly faced with negative media stories about mental illness, or have problems getting housing or jobs because of their psychiatric history. In other countries, people with mental illness can be tied up in shackles and sent to the outlying areas of towns.
Because of the widespread stigma and discrimination that surrounds mental illness in all communities, people who are diagnosed with a mental illness such as schizophrenia may internalise this stigma, and think that they are inferior to people who do not have a mental illness. Recent research has suggested it is important for clinicians to consider self-stigma when treating all of their patients.