“Stigma determines not only how people feel, but how they behave, whether they take treatment and so on,” said Sagar Parikh, part of the CREST.BD (Collaborative Research Team to study psychosocial issues in Bipolar Disorder) network in an interview at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting. “It's a concern in people who you might not think would have stigma—that's mental health providers.”

I have bipolar disorder 1, anxiety, and psychosis. I’ve ‏written five one-person shows about my own experience. I’ve worked as a keynote speaker performing these shows, or theatrical keynotes as I like to call them, for more than 23 years. They open up dialogue and give insight to health professionals and help people with mental illness and their families have hope, feel less alone, and talk about their own experiences.

I perform to do my part in dismantling stigma, to show one face of recovery. My audiences range from organizations to associations, from conferences to corporations in a wide variety of sectors and industries. My aim is to destigmatize mental illness, increase understanding of workplace mental illness and the........

© Psychology Today