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As part of the emotional impact of hepatitis C, all of the participants described experiencing or perceiving stigmatization to some degree. Participants discussed being treated differently and feeling looked down upon. This experience of stigma was perhaps the most robust theme, and it seemed to underlie each of the others to some degree. Some participants expressed sadness in relation to experiencing stigma, while others expressed anger or resentment towards those who treated them poorly.

Many participants reflected on feeling that they were looked down upon, that they were damaged in some way, or not good enough. Participants suggested that they were seen only as ‘the disease’ and not as a whole person. Being looked upon as dirty, a ‘low-life’ and a second class citizen were all associated with being hepatitis C positive.

Damaged goods. Basically. Its like you’re no good because you have hepatitis. They don’t see you as a person anymore, they see you as the disease. (02)

I mean I am an addict, but I am certainly not dirty… I mean just because people have this disease, doesn’t mean we are less of a person. I come from a very good family, you know, educated, I went to university, I just happened to get stuck along the way (01).

Like, when people find out that I got it, I feel like I’m not up to people’s standards, that I am just another low life that has Hep C, I mean I have been told that. But, it does, it makes you feel like a second-class citizen is what it does, basically… I am not a second-class citizen, I am not and that’s how I felt. (01)

Many believed that the stigmatization stems from the association of hepatitis C with drug use, sex and poverty. As two participants explained:

It’s the drug use. It’s the drug use. As soon as they see why I have hep C or why I got it, their opinion changes. (01)

I think the bottom line is they, they perceive it to be a drug and sex thing, and poverty. I think that’s, them three things is what they put it as. (09)

Another participant talked about the assumption that individuals who engage in drug use or sex work do not take care of themselves.

Hep C I think, hep C and HIV I think are both, there is a stereotype about it that says, you can get it, its mostly junkies that get it, prostitutes, drug addicts. Drug addicts, junkies or prostitutes. People who don’t take care of themselves, homeless people. (08)

Almost all participants described the experience of others treating them differently upon discovering their hepatitis C status. Several were fearful of telling others about their diagnosis as a result. Many explained that they have only told a few people about their diagnosis, some had told nobody, and others had experienced a poor reaction to disclosing and now do not tell anyone.

I don’t know, it was, a little rough because, I just thought that when I told people that I had that, it seemed like they just treated me differently, and I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that. (04)

I don’t tell too many people because it’s, I don’t know, cause you kind of get shunned. People won’t smoke after you, they kinda look at you like its dirty kinda thing. (07)

After I told a few people and I saw the reaction, that they were a little leery about touching stuff that I touched and that kind of thing, it got me to the point where I didn’t really want to tell anyone that I had it. (04)

This secrecy, shame, and sometimes resentment over being treated differently meant that several of the individuals interviewed had become isolated, both physically and emotionally. Some felt as though they did not want to burden their friends or family with their diagnosis, having already made them deal with their addiction, trouble with the law, or children’s services. Others worried that their friends or family would be scared if they knew about their diagnosis.

I am just scared of the reaction if they [family] knew that I had hep C… I am always cautious around them right, but its just, if they knew I think they would be scared or something. (02)

Another participant described the stigma associated with hepatitis C treatment in particular. She explained that she did not want treatment because doing so would identify her as hepatitis C positive and she did not want others to know that she had hepatitis. She discusses not wanting ‘the whole thing’, that is treatment and the association with hepatitis C, around her:

I just don’t, I don’t, I don’t want that. The whole thing around you. (07)