Funny, I was just thinking about this earlier today, feeling a bit crabby at yet another "down with stigma" campaign thingy.

I really don't understand how these organizations think they are combating stigma or what they can actually do to that end. The only people who listen to them are those who are already open. The media is what gets a message to everybody else, and like others noted, the media are one of the worst perpetrators of stigma. The general population does not pay attention to Active Minds or NAMI. They have never even heard of them.

I think one of the most successful ways to really truly beat stigma in our lifetimes is for pretty much everyone to come out. If everyone really understood how many people in their lives struggle with mental illness, we'd all have a new appreciation of it. We'd all find that we know people that we admire and would be surprised to find that they struggle with schizophrenia or eating disorders or whatever. It would be harder to discriminate in workplaces if the full scope of the issues were apparent. But that's not very realistic, is it? I'd love to come out. I'm afraid to - there are career considerations - and hey, aren't we all anonymous here? So. Yeah. Pipe dreams, such as they are.

The only other way to really get at the issue that I can see is education, and I think this could be much more effective in the long term, and more effective than it has been in the past. When I think of the kind of education that would really and truly make a difference, it would be part of (required!) health education at a young age in schools, right along with reproductive health and nutrition (so very sadly neglected...) there should be mental health, covered in more depth than just the "depression makes people sad" sort of lip-service. These are important things for everyone to know about, especially given the statistics about how many people experience mental illness. It's the sort of thing I think kids should be introduced to when they are young and have substantially more exposure to by high school so that they have some chance of knowing what the problems really are when they crop up for themselves or a loved one, and some idea about what they need to do to/for help.

OK, off my soapbox... /rant