Quotes About Stigma

When you're a black man in a hoodie, all of a sudden you're a criminal. That's something we shouldn't have to deal with, but we do. It's a double standard. We can't cover our head when it's cold and raining because God forbid someone sees us and puts our life in danger.

I think these last 10 years have seen just a huge shift in the psyche of this country as regards gay people. I think AIDS had a lot to do with it. So many families who really believed they'd 'never met one' were suddenly confronted with their sons becoming ill, and friends of sons. I think that brought a lot of it into the open.

I suffer from manic-depressive disorder, and I've chosen not to take medication for it. Because of that, every once in a while I go through manic episodes and really depressed episodes.

When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder the year I turned 50, it was certainly a shock. But as a journalist, knowing a little bit about a lot of things, I didn't suffer the misconception that depression was all in my head or a mark of poor character. I knew it was a disease, and, like all diseases, was treatable.

The likelihood is that you or someone you know closely will suffer from a mental health condition in your lifetime.

Many people with mental illness suffer in silence, afraid to seek help for fear of victimisation.

The sad truth is that millions of people with mental illness suffer stigma and prejudice, especially at work.

I'm open that I suffer from really bad IBS and I think people get really embarrassed about stuff like that.

As well as being blind, Ma turned out to have the same mental illness that her mother had had. Between 1986 and 1990, she suffered six schizophrenic bouts, each requiring her to be institutionalised for up to three months.

I've suffered through depression and anxiety my entire life.

When I was growing up, I was told I was stupid and that I would never achieve. I suffered from dyslexia, and in those days it wasn't recognised.

People who express suicidal feelings are least likely to act on them.

I'm usually called upon to play the dreary suicidal girl.

AIDS obliges people to think of sex as having, possibly, the direst consequences: suicide. Or murder.

Suicide is not a remedy.

We have many cases of men committing suicide rather than face their own individuality. I know of no case of a woman who committed suicide because she was gay.

When suicide hit my family, we learned first-hand that no one is immune from what is now the 10th leading cause of death in the US.

The homosexual community has more acceptance in America than it ever has, and the suicide rate is as high as it's always been.

Rationally, I knew these fears were ridiculous. There were no signs, unfortunately, and I would never blame anyone for another person's suicide. But if everyone felt that way, there wouldn't be this cruel stigma, would there?

For some reason, they always gave me a fat suit in high-school productions. If there was a character who needed to be robust, they gave me a fat suit, and I put on a silly voice.

If I buy a Fiat Uno, I'll read that, for a man like me, a Ferrari was more suitable. If instead I buy a Ferrari, they'll write that I should have kept my feet on the ground and bought a Fiat. If I smile, I'm not serious. If I don't smile, I'm a rich sulker that doesn't enjoy having the most beautiful job in the world.

I remember specifically, in the summer of 2002, the rate of women infected with HIV/AIDS was beginning to match the rate of men, and nobody was talking about it. It was as if it was on nobody else's radar. I had made up my mind to do something about it.

All I've ever really done is page 3 in The Sun, and not every man reads that.

I was super insecure in middle school; I didn't tell anyone I swam because it wasn't the cool sport to be doing.