I amazed and pleased at how many resources the NYT is devoting to covering mental illness. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/health/mental-illness-denmark-schizophrenia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QVA.7jpx.SeMcPrkr5iNy&smid=url-share
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I can’t really talk on stigma at length, I’m very good at hiding my disease and most people don’t know I have schizophrenia, just my immediate family and maybe a couple of their friends . It’s in my record with my employer but they are a company who hires veterans and the disabled exclusively and they are very understanding. So I haven’t felt stigma for the most part.
I have felt the sting of it a little though. I’m not exactly sure what happened at my last living situation, it was a small apartment and my roommate was way too familiar and crossed boundaries and found out I was schizophrenic and his girlfriend found out too. I had lived for prior years in close quarters with roommates and other clients in group homes and even in the hospitals and no one knew I had schizophrenia, I acted very normal and sounded normal when I talked so no one knew.
This roommate was pushy though and found out. I think the worst part of him knowing was being laughed at by his girlfriend, that really hurt. I have worked for over 40 years, and lived independently and driven cars and got my college degree and commanded a certain level of respect in those who knew me but with his girlfriend it was like none of that had ever happened. The laugh discounted all I had done.
Luckily, I have a dynamic with other mentally ill people where I don’t tell them my diagnosis and don’t ask theirs and I treat them as normal people so my roommate respected that and I only faced stigma for a very short time before he treated me like I was used to being treated. The short while he treated me with stigma was demeaning and disorienting though so I got a taste of stigma.
I remember when I was renting a room in this families house and after about a month there the husband found out I was mentally ill. He didn’t think I was dangerous, thank god, but it was bad enough when he asked, “So they let you work?”, which was insulting enough, I prided myself on my employment history and pulled my own weight at most jobs I had. But other then those two instances I haven’t faced stigma. Now at work I think the office workers in the building I’m a janitor in may know I’m mentally ill but don’t know my diagnosis. Maybe it’s brave to reveal ones diagnosis and it helps fight stigma but I’m used to no one knowing and I’m happy with that.
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