Let me tell you how.

Mental health stigma exists across the board. Just like any other form of stigmatization, its manifestation varies depending on who is the perpetrator of the stigma and what culture they grew up into.

Stigma can manifest itself in different ways. Telling someone with depression, for example, to cheer up is a form of stigma. It is "PC" culture that demands us to not tell someone with depression to "man up." It is simply science.

Stigma is calling someone with mental illness "crazy" because they have a mental illness.

Stigma is the fear of telling someone you are going to the psychiatrist because you do not want them to see you as unstable or dangerous, even though individuals with mental illness are more likely to be victims of assault than the perpetrators of it. Yet stigma relies on ignorance, so it persists even though facts indicate the opposite to be true.

This matters because there are U.S. citizens much less likely to receive mental health treatment because of stigma, a problem that is most prevalent among multicultural groups. Not only this, but there is also a huge problem with homelessness, drug addiction, and suicide among those with mental illnesses.

If there was a purely physical illness that caused homelessness at the rate that mental illness does, there would be so much outrage. But, to most, mental illness is considered to be the fault of the sufferer. This is a view of which, by the way, is unsubstantiated by science.

That is stigma. It is very much alive.

Now, to combat it, there is but one option, and that is to freely discuss it as though there was no shame attached to it. The only way to truly combat stigma is to realize that there are limitations to its power. Because stigma relies on misinformation, once we talk about it and dispel the myths about mental illness, only then are we free from it.

Statistically, you should care about this, because 1 in 4 people in the United States is living with mental illness (refer to the previous sources). If you saw 1000 people today, statistically 250 of them have some form of mental illness.

Do not doubt the presence of stigma. It has always been there, whether it is explicit or not.

We should not be afraid to talk about mental illness. It is necessary for us--as a collective and as a society--to move past the pervasive and engrained beliefs about mental illness so that we can help those who suffer from it. It is not easy. But it is certainly worth it.