Young addresses the stigma surrounding mental health, particularly depression. Depression is a mental illness that affects a person’s mood, thoughts, and behaviors. The symptoms of depression are often feelings of hopelessness and sadness and reduced social activity. Sometimes, depression leads to suicidal ideation or death by suicide. Although depression affects most of the global population, people with mental illnesses experience stigma. There is a difference between experiencing periods of depression and having a depressive disorder. Some forms of depression are temporary or circumstantial and cured through the correct treatment, whereas certain disorders can be permanent. In The Program, distinctions aren’t made between the types of illness, and any symptoms of potential disorders are treated as justification for forced memory removal. This treatment arises from prejudice, known in this context as ableism.

Stigma can affect public, systemic, and personal spheres and can lead to a greater expression of hopelessness from those affected because they do not have a support system. The Program addresses this stigma on a public scale as the medical professionals in the novel attempt to “cure” depression under the guise of public health. The characters in The Program view depression as a contagious disease that can spread quickly from one person to another.