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Vraskas’ Story

“It is possible to overcome the stigma, we need to do it.”

Share your stigma experience.

When I tell people about my issues, at first they are surprised, but then they ask if they can help in any way. In my personal experience, most stigma about mental illness comes from people with mental illnesses themselves. When people ask if they can help, there is not a way they really can most of the time. People with mental illnesses feel bad about burdening friends and loved ones with the weight of their illness, and do not like that they can’t comfort their friends and loved ones after burdening them with that knowledge.

How did you overcome this experience?

The only way to overcome the stigma is for people with mental illnesses to talk about themselves to everyone close to them as much as possible. People are generally open when talking about that stuff, we just have to do it more.

Help others by sharing a brief, positive message.

It is possible to overcome the stigma, we need to do it.

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