I had the honor and the privilege to both attend and present at the State Consumer Conference on Thursday, July 22. There were so many wonderful workshops that I had a hard time choosing which ones I wanted to attend. I presented with Steven Batson from the Michigan Recovery Center of Excellence on Anti-Stigma. We showed the documentary that NLCMH just recently released (Look Closer: See Me For Who I Am) and got all great feedback on how well it was created.

I found it rather educating to hear folks answer the question of why they chose to attend our session after Steven had asked them. There were so many different answers to this question and it led to an amazing discussion on what people thought stigma was and how it affected their lives in so many different levels and in so many different ways.

• What kinds of stigma do you encounter on a daily basis?
• How does it make you feel?
• How can you change it as only one voice/person?

All of this consumes me at so many different levels. I’d like to hear your thoughts on these questions. Maybe your thoughts can help someone else. I’m hoping it will help continue to show that even though we might all not know each other, we all face it and deal with it daily and we might even stigmatize others daily without even knowing it. How? Why? When? Think about it and how you can help others. Leave your thoughts and help someone else.