A statement like "mental illness has had a detrimental impact on my life" creates absolutely no change in public opinion in regards to mental health. And it's not because people don't care about other people; it's because that statement doesn't touch a person's heart. For example, look at reply #9 to this thread. When kim starts saying "they don't know what it is like" I began caring.

The focus should be on public opinion, for if you change that you change the government (legislative, executive, judicial); the healthcare system will change, big pharma will change, etc. The public needs to know how mental illness has affected your life. Has mental illness had any impact on your employment? If so, how? Any impact on education? If so, how? Any impact on relationships? If so, how? The more details the better. I wrote a reply to a thread about indifference (Current Events forum (The Cost of Not Caring by H-H-H-H)). It is a statistical thread, but I decided to reply with a personal experience. I received two virtual hugs from a statistical thread.

Here's a similarly-situated issue: Same-sex marriage. Just 15 years ago, 60+% of American citizens opposed same-sex marriage and it was illegal in the USA. Today 60+% of American citizens are in favor of same-sex marriage and it is legal in 70+% of the USA and may become legal in the entire USA by this June. How did an issue with a huge stigma go from less than 20% support to over 70% support in less than 15 years? The LGBTQ community and their allies took a two-pronged approach: Stop the militancy movement and start emphasizing similarities; and advocate for a constitutional right to marry.

Let's take a similar approach in regards to mental illness.