Schizophrenia is a ‘degrading expression’, depression is ‘treatable’… Mental illness awareness gap

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Seong Seong-ho = A survey showed that the stigma and discrimination against the diagnosis is so severe that among the Korean people, schizophrenia is accepted as an irreversible disease and the disease itself is used as a slang word.

On the other hand, there appears to be a large gap in social awareness of mental illness, with depression being accepted as a disease that can be experienced by anyone and treated.

The Central Mental Health Welfare Support Group (Central Support Group) held a 2026 incident reporter seminar at the Ocean Suites Hotel in Jeju on the 4th with the Korean Journalists Association and introduced the results of analyzing social media (SNS) such as blogs, communities, and YouTube from 2017 to 2025 using text mining.

As a result of the analysis, the most frequently mentioned diagnoses during this period were depression and insomnia.

Words with increased mentions included ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), anxiety disorder, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and Alzheimer's, while words with decreased mentions included schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and anger control disorder.

As a result of analyzing the related words of the diagnosis, schizophrenia was accompanied by negative words.

Looking at the related word network, schizophrenia was followed by negative words such as ‘asshole’, ‘asshole’, ‘delusion’, and ‘hallucination’.

On the other hand, related words such as 'counseling', 'help', 'stress', and 'health' were attached to depression.

Baek Jong-woo, head of the Central Support Group (Department of Psychiatry, Kyung Hee University School of Medicine), said, "Depression is a disease that anyone can experience due to stress, and it is believed that with counseling, one can return to their original healthy life. On the other hand, schizophrenia is recognized as a disease that changes one's life the moment one is diagnosed based on symptoms of delusions and auditory hallucinations that cannot be understood by the general public, and the word 'schizophrenia patient' itself is already used as a slang term."

Media reporting practices covering mental illness appear to have improved somewhat.

In the same study, as a result of analyzing media news reported between 2017 and 2025, the proportion of 'public debate' reports that made the social treatment, awareness, and system of mental illness itself the subject of debate and discussion increased from 9.4% in 2017 to 2019 to 19.9% ​​in 2023 to 2025.

Additionally, the proportion of negative words in the news, such as 'assault' and 'crime', decreased from 76.7% to 59.1%, and the number of inclusive words increased.

However, when a case related to mental illness occurred, when reporting on mental and physical weakness and reduced sentences, the rate of negative comments soared to 85.7%.

Seonyoung Lee, Director of Mental Health Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, "Improving awareness of mental health and eliminating prejudice are very important in order to lower the barriers to treatment of mental illness. We will work closely with the media to create a social environment and atmosphere where people can receive appropriate help when experiencing mental health difficulties."