Abstract

Substance abuse, the misuse or overuse of a substance, often has many negative consequences to one’s health. In addition, people with substance abuse may perceive stigmatization by society. This perceived stigma, resulting from the discriminatory or negative words, actions, and beliefs of others, may have serious deleterious effects on an individual (Ahern et al., 2007; Birtel et al., 2017; Can et al., 2015, Luoma et al., 2007). The internalized and perceived stigma felt by those who abuse substances may stem from negative societal perceptions of substance abuse. This study sought to investigate the public perception of individuals with substance abuse in order to further understand how societal stigma could play a role in the well documented internalized stigma in this population. Three hundred twenty seven participants took an online survey comprised of demographic information as well as the Social Distance Scale for Substance Use (SDS-SU), the Affect Scale for Substance Users (AS-SU), and two questions to assess previous contact level and the nature of previous contact with the population. Results indicated high mean SDS-SU and AS-SU scores demonstrating a significant amount of societal stigma towards people who abuse substances.

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