Costs to society from serious mental illness. Mental illness was the cause of poverty for our family so it was a high price personally, but there are societal costs as well.

Mental health is still behind other forms of health care by as much as 300 years.

I think it's because, unfortunately, mental health is still an affliction that people are ashamed of when someone isn't quite "normal".

You are both so right. I fight stigma of all kind by being public and taking the ridicule. Eventually I hope the honesty will change minds.

I think people are deeply afraid that they, too, might experience some form of mental illness. If they can mentally classify people with mental illness as "them" and "those people" and "not like me!" it's easier than realizing that they, too, might some day have to deal with something similar. I mean, I certainly didn't sign up for this voluntarily, and I doubt anybody else did either...

And on the destigmatizing front, lately I've been thinking I need a t-shirt that says "THIS IS WHAT A PERSON WITH DEPRESSION LOOKS LIKE."