The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto launched an awareness campaign today in the hopes of bringing attention to the stigma those with mental illness face to help defeat it. The ads quote some of the most common things those of us with mental illness hear. These are the ones I encounter most frequently.

The more I pushed my friends away the worse I began to feel. Ultimately I was a consenting adult and they respected my wishes and backed off. Some of them, though, have backed off forever because my verbal abuse in a time of need was too much for them to handle. It is the biggest regret of my life.

I don't like thinking of my mental illness as baggage, but everybody has skeletons in their closet and there are certain things that have happened to us in our lives we may not disclose immediately. But nonetheless, living with mental illness proves to be difficult when you're like me and on the online, gay dating circuit.