The most prevalent question I receive from my Bipolar Babe peer support group participants is, “I met a wonderful guy/girl and she/he wants to take me out on a date, so do I tell them that I have a mental illness?” It’s a valid question and a concern that many people have right from the start, with good reason. It can be scary telling someone, anyone, for the first time that you have a mental illness due to the stigma that exists in society. In my personal experience, and hearing stories from others, mental health stigma and intimate relationships can spell doom and gloom, or they can provide a positive platform for empowerment and honesty.

Looking back on my younger years, my early 20s to be exact, I recall life being so different. My most significant worries were breaking up with, yet again, another boyfriend, choosing which nightclub to frequent with my girlfriends for the weekend, and what bikini I was going to wear to the beach for the approaching summer season. There were barely any worries as I was an avid social butterfly, and made new friends everywhere I went, and most especially I never had a problem being social.

I feel a lot of trepidation writing this article because it is based on such a controversial topic -- medication and stigma, or what I fondly refer to as med-igma. The stigma of taking mental health medication is something many of us know all too well. Hiding the fact that we take medications, feeling ashamed and fearful that other people will find out, and the internal med-igma that taunts us as we fill yet another glass of water to swallow our daily dose of  prescribed medications.

Having a mental illness brings a world of new perspectives, life experiences, and a change in reality forever. How does one survive the everyday, when it feels at every turn you are hit over the head by a new challenge facing mental illness stigma? It is never easy to deal with a mental health issue and it is equally as difficult to manage with the everyday annoyances, put downs, negative media reports, and a world that is just plain stigmatized.

Stigma is often something that we perceive as being out there in society, but, actually, it too is rampant, and a reality, in the lives of many families. When a family member is diagnosed with a mental illness, the fear often sets in and they panic wondering, “How am I going to tell my family?” One may assume that a family is assured to be empathetic, understanding and accepting, but this is not always the case.

People often ask me what is mental health stigma anyway? I make it simple. Stigma is the widespread perception about people who have a mental illness. Stigma says "those people" are scary, violent or crazy. It is these terms that shed a negative light on people with a mental illness simply because they have a disorder. It is outright discrimination, it is a lack of knowledge, and a clear indication that a great number of people who believe this are severely ignorant and misinformed. Self-stigmatization is that same thing, only the mental health stigma comes from within.

On Oct. 28, 2013, Justin Eldridge took his life. He left behind a wife and four children, and the never-ending question of "Why?" He had served more than eight years serving in the United States Marines, including an eight-month stint in Afghanistan. He was 31-years-old.

Do you ever feel as if you're not good enough? Do you ever wake up at night and think, If others really knew me... Do you ever walk around looking at others, knowing they are better/smarter/more beautiful than you? Yes.

In the past few weeks, three people with mental illness appeared in the media's pictures of violence, which is no surprise given that the media and mental illness have a long history together. Ultimately, the media defines what mental illness looks like in the public's mind. If one were to gauge by the past few weeks, it would seem that mental illness and violence go hand in hand. But does it?

In this two-part series, I speak with former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, D-RI, about mental health stigma and the work he and others are doing, not only to combat stigma, but to bring research into brain disorders and illnesses to the forefront. Kennedy is a co-founder of One Mind for Research, a group dedicated to brain disorder research. In this interview, Kennedy speaks about mental health stigma; the role his uncle, President John F. Kennedy played in bringing about treatment to local communities, and the role of post-tramatic stress in the "astronomical" suicide rate of today's veterans.