This research sought to understand the role of physical environments on information processing, in the context of psychiatric help-seeking communication. Guided by theories and research in design, communication, and psychology, this dissertation examines how environmental stressors may hinder message processing and how message design strategies may overcome the negative influence of environmental stressors (Study One) and how environmental stressors may hinder message processing in a virtual environment (Study Two). It investigates how the noise and visual clutter we frequently encounter shape our processing of messages in a real (Study One) and virtual environment (Study Two): an area of research which researchers traditionally look at in a “clean” or “experimental” setting. The studies, divided into two chapters, were designed to be developed as a test of concept in a contrived setting (Chapter II) and a virtual reality (VR) setting (Chapter III). Guided by the Elaboration Likelihood Model and the concept of congruency, Chapter II investigates a promising avenue to overcome the effect of noise pollution on outcomes related to mental health: how message-environment congruency can be an approach in designing strategic messages. Chapter III examines the influence of auditory disorder on state anxiety and message elaboration, the influence of visual disorder on cognitive capacity and message elaboration, and the potential “bundling” effect of auditory disorder and visual disorder on health risk-perception. Chapter II presents the novel finding that message-environment congruency can enhance message elaboration of psychiatric help-seeking information among first-year undergraduate students, supporting evidence garnered in other domains such as advertising and consumer psychology, that viewers can be primed or nudged to view specific information. Chapter III shows that visual disorder (i.e., perception of disorderliness due to basic or low-level visual features such as spatial and color features) can influence cognitive capacity, and the relationships remained significant regardless of one’s perception of the visual disorder. Chapter IV highlights the implication for practice - the notion of message-environment congruency may be important, and researchers should better understand how this type of congruency can play a role in public health communication (Study One), and that fully immersive VR can be used in future health communication-design research and practice. Overall, this dissertation offers promising evidence that environmental stressors, regardless of where they are presented, matter within the context of psychiatric help-seeking communication, and researchers should continue to examine message-environment interactions.