Insights from BetterHelp’s State of Stigma Report
The recently released 2025 State of Stigma Report from BetterHelp provides comprehensive insights into global mental health attitudes and the growing impact of online therapy. Based on survey data from over 16,000 people across 23 countries, the report examines how mental health support is perceived and accessed worldwide, revealing both significant progress and ongoing challenges.
According to the report, nearly 75% of global respondents agree that seeking mental health support is an intelligent move, even if nothing is ostensibly wrong at that given moment. Consider the sheer chasm of difference between this present-day majority belief and the beliefs of decades past, in which mental health support was heavily stigmatized. Then, mental health support was viewed as something that meant things were truly dire and the individual in question needed substantial help because their mental health was so poor.
However, this could not be further from the truth. You don’t only go to a physical health doctor when you’re feeling sick or injured, you go regularly to receive structured check-ups. Similarly, mental health support should ideally work the same way, and the fact that people are realizing this on such a large scale is highly encouraging regarding the profession’s status in modern-day society.
While this growing recognition of mental health’s importance across the globe is certainly encouraging, a concerning disconnect has emerged in tandem with it. According to the same study, nearly 60% of respondents still feel that mental health help is discouraged or outright dismissed by societal attitudes.
This is indicative of the key issues at the heart of the mental health profession today. While people widely agree that mental health support is good in theory, it’s also far less likely for those same individuals to seek help in practice.
The report identifies three primary ways stigma appears: cultural (help-seeking viewed as weakness or failure), generational (influenced by age, era, and societal norms), and gender-based (shaped by expectations of who gets to ask for help and who stays silent). These forces create powerful undercurrents that prevent many from seeking the support they intellectually recognize as valuable.
Expanding Access Through Online Platforms
One of the most striking statistics from the report highlights BetterHelp’s role in expanding mental health access. BetterHelp is an online platform through which users can receive direct access to highly trained and professionally certified mental health professionals. To this end, according to the study, it would appear that isolation and solitude of online mental health resources such as this are aiding people in feeling freer to seek mental health support and avoid stigmatization.
More than 40% of the platform’s new members in 2024 were experiencing therapy for the first time in their lives. This figure suggests that online platforms are successfully reaching individuals who might otherwise never seek mental health support due to geographical, financial, or social barriers.
The platform has helped over 5 million people across more than 100 countries access professional therapy support. It’s easy to see why the platform has become such a success: for years, mental health support has had numerous obstacles standing between people considering getting treatment and the actual support itself. However, these online platforms serve to actively remove these obstacles and make care much more accessible for everyone.
Evidence from the Report
For those questioning whether online therapy delivers real results, the 2025 State of Stigma Report offers compelling evidence of BetterHelp’s effectiveness and credibility. The platform maintains a network of over 30,000 licensed mental health professionals, each of whom undergoes rigorous vetting to ensure they meet professional standards. Every therapist must maintain proper state licensure and demonstrate at least 1,000 hours of practical experience before joining the platform.
The effectiveness of these professionals is reflected in client outcomes, with 72% of users experiencing symptom reduction in their first 12 weeks of therapy. More specifically, 69% achieved reliable improvement according to patient health questionnaires, and 62% reached symptom remission during their treatment. Furthermore, client satisfaction metrics additionally reinforce the platform’s credibility. Live therapy sessions received an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on more than 1.7 million client ratings in 2024. Additionally, 82% of clients reported they would recommend their therapist to others, indicating strong therapeutic relationships and positive experiences with the platform’s professionals.
BetterHelp’s matching system achieved a 93% success rate in fulfilling client preferences in 2024. New members can be typically matched with a therapist in as little as 12 hours, significantly faster than the weeks or months often required to secure an appointment with a traditional in-person therapist.
Supporting Mental Health Between Sessions
The platform offers multiple ways for clients to communicate with their therapists, including video sessions, phone calls, live chat, and messaging. This flexibility enables clients to engage in therapy in a manner that feels most comfortable and convenient for them, potentially leading to more open and productive therapeutic relationships.
Someone experiencing social anxiety, for instance, might find it easier to begin therapy through messaging before transitioning to video sessions as they build confidence and rapport with their therapist.
Persistent Barriers and Community Impact
Even though society at large is growing increasingly accepting of mental health care in concept, there are still significant obstacles that remain. Among these obstacles are pricing, social stratification, and geography.
Certain groups face particularly high barriers, including LGBTQ+ individuals, parents of young children, those living with roommates, and people in multigenerational homes. For many of these subsets of people, the issue still comes down to perceived judgment or dismissal. Anyone sharing a home with someone outside of their immediate relationship, such as roommates, young children, or older relatives, is far less likely to seek mental health help, despite the fact that they may be the individuals who could benefit from it the most.
In addition to this, these groups are also far less likely to feel comfortable with the cost of mental health care, as people living in such scenarios are normally not doing so by choice, but rather out of necessity, in an attempt to save money. The report notes that these same groups are often the most likely to say therapy could help, if only they could access it.
BetterHelp’s community impact extends beyond individual client care. In 2024, the platform donated the equivalent of $14 million in therapy services through partnerships with over 100 nonprofits, demonstrating its commitment to expanding mental health access to underserved communities.
The Future of Mental Health Support
The 2025 State of Stigma Report suggests that the future of effective mental health care lies in making it more accessible, more affordable, and more representative of every community. As Fernando Madeira, President of BetterHelp, notes in the report: “Everyone needs help at some point. What matters is making it easier to ask for it.”
The data indicates that while online therapy platforms have made significant strides in expanding access to mental health care, there’s still important work to be done in addressing the stigma and practical barriers that prevent many from seeking the help they need and deserve.
By tracking and sharing these insights, BetterHelp demonstrates a commitment to understanding the complex forces that shape mental health care access and outcomes—a critical step toward creating more effective and inclusive mental health solutions for people worldwide.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider.
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