Any process of stigma or exclusion will be a traumatizing social process which is based on being perceived to have what are known as 'social markers',
Social markers may vary from culture to culture and society to society but generally fall into four categories:
By physical appearance this means your physical identity, height, body shape and size, skin colour, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, age, and so on. But it also takes in such things even as hairstyle, the clothes you were and so on.
Your culture and background can also contain social markers such as - particularly in the UK but also elsewhere - your perceived social class, upbringing, cultural or social background, your education, and so on. Even the way you speak and having a specific regional accent can be a social marker.
Your perceived lifestyle, i.e. the way other people 'think' you life your life is another set of social markers. This takes in sexual orientation, social and economic class, perceived occupation or lack of an occupation, whether or not you are working or dependent on the state or welfare.
The way you behave or interact with others can also carry social markers, for example if you are perceived to have a disability, a chronic illness, mental health issue, or you find yourself 'on the spectrum' or neurodivergent.
Status loss and denial of individual human experience
See unlike bullying, where you know who is bullying you, usually in the case of social stigma where you are discriminated against or judged for having social markers there is not much you can do by yourself to overcome the stigma and the social exclusion. This is because you are being labelled and stigmatized by other people often in many different social contexts and situations. If you carry a few social markers, which can be seen as dimensions, you never know who is going to have an issue with you, or why, and in what specific social context or situation.
Experiencing discrimination and prejudice from social stigma can create additional barriers and difficulties, or hurdles you need to overcome, these barriers and difficulties include:
- practical barriers
- financial barriers
- social barriers
- emotional and psychological barriers
For example you might find it harder to access opportunities and amenities commonly accessible to everyone. You might be denied access to services such as healthcare, housing, education and employment. You might find it harder to meet people and make friends.
External and internal social stigma
Nobody likes being rejected, excluded, singled out or left out. One of the most basic and fundamental human emotional needs is to feel a sense of inclusion, a sense of belonging, to feel a part of something that is bigger than who they are as individuals. So often what happens is that, when you're affected by social stigma and prejudice from other people, you start to internalize your negative or unpleasant social encounters and the stigma, and just to avoid being stigmatized by others you start to stigmatize yourself and excluding yourself from certain social situations.
This is where you start becoming isolated, lonely, and you start developing health issues, physical health issues and mental health issues.
For example you might develop an addiction in order to deal with the emotional and psychological pain so that a substance such as alcohol, food, drugs, gives you a sense of relief or pleasure that you're not getting from other people or social interaction. For example obesity is often caused through comfort eating and binge eating because unlike people, you can rely on food to give you pleasure. You're not eating because you are hungry, but because you feel down, depressed, anxious, lonely, rejected.
Social stigma and social exclusion can quite often lead to premature death due to a lack of support, a major health condition not being recognized or diagnosed early enough, or in the case of suicide.
Suicide
All too often in the event of suicide social stigma and social exclusion is the primary contributing factor.