 Welcome to Depression 2 Expression, my name is Scott and we're going to have an honest dialogue about mental health today, about stigma. Now, if you are a mental health advocate, if you've seen any advertisement or any kind of promotional material for mental health, you've seen the word stigma attached. That's every hashtag is end the stigma, mental illness stigma, stigma that surrounds mental illness. It's a word they just go together so nicely like a fridge and a carton of eggs, like a t-shirt and a body, like toothpaste and a dentist, like a condom and a penis. Give me more of those in the comments, like a plant in soil, like the sunshine in the sky, they just go together so well. And this video, we're first going to define what stigma is, but then we're going to disagree about something, probably, probably. This is my opinion and we're going to have, I'm going to be honest with you, honest dialogue, right? It's what we stand for here, fearless expression. I'm going to give you my take on stigma. I'm going to explain why I think it's, for a lot of us, a terrible excuse, an excuse for not getting help, and how we can overcome that. But how stigma wasn't really a factor for me and I didn't care, how stigma is a reflection of how we feel and how we see the world. Stigma doesn't come from other people. We create our own stigma. So that's just a preview of what's going to happen in this video. Please stay tuned and let's get the show on the road. Okay, and if you haven't subscribed, please subscribe to Depression 2 Expression, mental health videos and music reactions and all that fun good stuff every week. Now we're going to define stigma, drum roll please, or I'll do horns. And just let me take out my phone here. Stigma is a noun. Person, place your thing. A mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person. I will repeat. Stigma is defined, I keep spitting. Stigma is defined as a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person. And the stigma suggestion, the example they have here is the stigma of having gone to prison will always be with me. Yeah, I get that. Some synonyms are shame, disgrace, dishonor, and humiliation. So we got that out of the way. Now let me rant for a little bit. I don't know where this is going to go. I don't know what I'm going to say here, but bear with me. This is the internet after all and I guess it's for putting myself out there and maybe acting like a complete idiot. So that's what I signed up for when you go on YouTube and don't really have a script. That's kind of what happens. Okay, stigma. You don't want any responsibility. No one wants any responsibility these days. We're fed this mantra, this message that the problem is always out there. It's not your fault. You're not responsible. It's the Trump administration. That's the problem. I failed the class because I had a shitty professor. That's the problem. People won't accept my mental illness. It's their problem. It's society's fault. It's the system. What a terrible excuse that is. What a sad way to live your life. But I get why we do it because having no responsibility is awesome. It's awesome. I had a great childhood. I could watch cartoons, learn new things, play in the sandbox. And when it was dinner time, Scott, dinner, said my mom and I would have dinner and then maybe do the dishes, do some chores. And Disney Marathon. Four movies in a row. You got Lion King. You got Aladdin. Maybe we had the little rascals too. Maybe I'll watch Jurassic Park at night. I had about five VHS tapes. And of course you had the Family Channel. Channel 51 on basic cable. Now what am I getting at? Of course having no responsibility is awesome, but that shouldn't be the reality. That shouldn't be. Listen, sometimes you have to blame yourself. Sometimes it's completely your fault. You have the control. And then you could think, well maybe that is a good feeling. Sometimes having no control is okay. You sit back, relax and let life flow. Other times you want to hold the joystick. You want to hold the steering wheel. And when it comes to stigma, you have control. Now, I'm from Canada and a lot of people who watch this are from the US. We're pretty good as far as stigma goes in both countries. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of advocates in North America and worldwide. There are people that support mental health. Ask anyone. They're going to be like, yeah of course I support mental health. I want people to be happy. Of course. No one's going to say, I wish you were depressed. You should have depression. You're a terrible human being. I hope you rot in hell and have suicidal thoughts for the rest of your life. No. People support mental health, okay? Now stigma comes into play in maybe low consumption countries. Countries outside the West, right? I get it. I get it. It's tough. I've had it super easy. I have. I have. People are going to say, Scott, you're a white male. You know nothing about the world and the challenges we face. That may be so, but I also know the power of the mind and the power of making excuses and the power of letting other people control your actions. You probably care too much about what other people think. Meanwhile, I don't give a shit. That's maybe the difference between me who doesn't care about stigma and you and society who are afraid to talk about it. They're afraid of what others will think. That's what stigma is. You're afraid to be labeled. You're afraid to be called crazy. You're afraid to be misjudged. You're afraid to not fit in. You're afraid of what they're going to think and say. Stigma isn't someone pointing a gun to your head and say, you can't talk about it. You can't, hopefully in no circumstances. There's no physical barrier with stigma. It's shame. It's caring what other people think and society. What is society going to think? And guess what? In the 1950s, that was a bigger deal. Now? Oh my goodness, we've come a long way. You ask anybody in Toronto, anybody in Canada, you ask anyone on the street. I could go up to anyone. Hey, I got a mental illness diagnosis. One out of five people would be like, yeah, me too. Yeah, I have OCD. Yeah, I have ADHD. Yeah, I have really debilitating anxiety. Yeah, I take medication. It's the norm, man, but even if it wasn't the norm, even if it's not the norm in your country, take a stand. Take a stand. Who cares what they think? Well, what are my friends going to think? They're going to call me crazy. Good. You are a little crazy. We're crazy babies. Yes, our minds are a little messed up. Yeah, and you need help. Cool. So you value their opinion more than you value your own happiness and your own mental health? No, I say something's wrong in my mind. Something clicked, some switch went off and I'm feeling extremely anxious and I don't know what's happening. I'm having extremely intrusive and very strange thoughts and I don't know what to do. I need some help. I got to talk to someone. So you talk to someone and they say, man, that's really messed up. You're crazy. You're a nut job. Go to an asylum. You belong in the psychiatric hospital and you say, okay, well, maybe, but holy shit, I need some help still. I need some help. Some people are going to say that. Maybe, maybe some people are going to say you're a nut job. You're crazy, but there's still no physical barrier. That means, okay, I tried talking to those people next. So I tried talking to my friends at school. Didn't accept it. Okay, let's try my parents. Well, you know, they didn't accept it either. Okay, let's try a counselor at school. Bingo. There you go. No counselor at school. There's online therapy. The link's below. There is always someone that is going to be available to help you. Guess what? People are waiting. People are waiting for you to call them. Mental health crisis hotlines. People are literally sitting at a desk, phone in front of them being like, well, this is what I get paid for. I'm waiting for someone to call me who needs help. Someone's waiting for you. So getting help and speaking about it is up to you, man. There's never going to be a time when everyone's okay with mental illness. There's not. Stigma will always be there and I've said this before. There's still fat shaming. You know, people still make fun of fat people? Yeah, they do. How long have fat people been around? Right? How many fat campaigns have there been? There's still shaming fat people. Did you know there's still racism out here? There's still racism in the world. How long have black people been around? Forever. And people still are racist. No matter how many campaigns, there's still stigma. There's always going to be stigma. It's never going to be 100% safe. But you care too much about what other people think. You care too much if they're going to judge you. You care too much about fitting in. Guess what? The person that does what he or she believes in. The person that puts themselves out there. The person that does what he or she feels is right and lives in accordance to their values. How's my respect? What are you doing? You want to impress other people? Where did that get you? Live by your values. You value honesty? Go be honest. Tell them you're suffering. Tell people you care about that you need care too. Stigma. I hate that word. I hate it, man. It removes all responsibility from the individual and puts it on the collective, puts it on the government, puts it on society, puts it on the system. Stigma's your choice, man. Now, comment and say, you know what? No, there's stigma. Every time I try to talk about mental health, someone slaps me in the face with a 2x4. And I'll be like, okay, that's stigma, man. Okay, we need a strategy around that. But if, oh, every time I talk to someone, they just don't listen and they think I'm making it up. Cool? Okay, we can deal with that. We can deal with that. We can take steps and find other people to talk to, people more helpful. We can give them more evidence and facts about what mental illness actually is. We can plead our case, no problem. Okay? People are closed-minded. Leave them closed. I'm not wasting my time with you. Okay? Go to people that actually care, that actually care about you and that you care about. Stigma. Mental health stigma. Stigma that surrounds mental illness. God. You know, I used to work at Twitter and you have keywords that, for every single job, think about your own job. You have words that you use on a constant basis, right? Mine was hashtag. Mine was cost per click. Mine was cost per acquisition, cost, you know, CPA, CPCs, cost per link click, CPLCs. Handles, right? Like, all these lingoes that you have. With mental health, working in mental health now, the lingo is stigma. That's the lingo. You can't tweet something without a hashtag that says stigma. You can't have a promotional campaign that says end the stigma. Or we're raising money to end the stigma that surrounds mental health. Who are you talking to? Be more specific with who you're actually talking to. Who is this campaign actually targeting? That's not the problem, man. Okay, someone has trouble speaking about their mental health problems. They haven't been diagnosed with a mental illness. But wait, they see a billboard that says it's okay to talk about mental health and the stigma. You think that's gonna help them talk? One out of a hundred, maybe? Okay, let's be honest also in the comments. We have a lot to comment about. Would that make you reach out to someone if you saw a billboard that said it's okay to talk about it? That wouldn't mean shit to me. I'm just being honest. I see these billboards, they don't do anything for me. Oh, great. That corporation said it's okay. Thanks. Who gives a shit? That's not gonna make any difference for me. What makes a difference is you start with yourself first. You ask yourself, what am I afraid of? What are the reactions I may receive? What's the worst that can happen? But instead we say there's stigma out there. There's stigma. What are people gonna think? What are they gonna say? Are they gonna judge me? Are they gonna make fun of me? What's the reaction going to be? Am I gonna be liked? Am I gonna be hated? Am I gonna be respected? Am I gonna be disrespected? This goes through our minds, cyclical thinking. We get stuck in that. So then of course we don't. We don't reach out for help. But then we blame the stigma. When in reality blame yourself. Take responsibility. Say, okay, I've worked this up to be a very, very big deal. I've had these thoughts for a long time and I don't know what's going to happen. I don't. I haven't said anything to anyone. How could I possibly know their reaction? How could I possibly know what could happen? The thought's always worse than the actual circumstance, the actual situation in reality. Stigma isn't the problem. It's your problem. But the good news is there's a solution and it begins right in here and right in here. And you can overcome it. Who cares what others think? You value honesty. You value mental health. So screw the stigma. There is no stigma. There's only you. So, with that being said, I look forward to some agreements in the comments and I look forward to some disagreements in the comments. Thank you everyone for watching. This has been Scott from Depression 2 Expression. Subscribe for mental health videos every month. This is something different. I love you all. This is a place for new perspectives, okay? And I value all of your opinions with this. I know it's hard. I know it's easier said than done. I know. But I really want to reiterate that you have the control in this. I don't want you to blame society. I don't. That means you're weak. That means you have no control. And I believe you're strong. I know you're strong. Because I know you've been through hell and you're still here. You're the strongest person on earth. So why would stigma be a problem? Stay strong. Keep being you. And don't forget to express yourself.