OK, so, on the one hand, as Americans get better-educated about the etiology of mental illness, their compassion for those with mental illness doesn't change. On the other hand, we've been here before with other chronic diseases such as diabetes or even cancer. Not too far in the past, it was a shameful thing to have a mother with breast cancer. Can you imagine, in 2010, trying to hide the fact that a loved one has cancer? So, yes, we have a long way to go, but I'm confident we'll get there.

And to that end, last weekend, NAMI-Vermont (National Alliance on Mental Illness) held a successful Walk-A-Thon in Burlington and invited me to perform a song I wrote, an anti-stigma anthem called "I Refuse It". I'd invite people who are fighting stigmatization to check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX3wnP4tpxM