How can we remove the stigma of mental illness?

Troubled young adult contemplating life. (iStock)

One in five Canadian young people is affected by mental illness. Bullying and teen suicide are on the rise. An estimated 3.2 million teenagers are at risk of developing depression.

With statistics like these, the time has come to examine a problem that many have been enduring in silence.

"It's just like the silence is deafening," Hannah Brunsdon, 16, told the CBC's Ioanna Roumeliotis, in a special report prepared for The National. "It's so deafening that it's smothering people, clearly, because people are committing suicide and feeling isolated."

Brunsdon, who was diagnosed with anxiety and depression disorder, says it helped when she began to talk to family and friends about what she was feeling.

"Immediately, it was like 'I'm not alone!'" she said.

Ottawa teens Reid Murphy and Lisa Benvanuti started an awareness campaign in Ottawa after their friend, 14-year-old Daron Richardson, committed suicide in 2010.

"People needed a voice and they need to be heard and speak freely about what's on their mind," Benvanuti said.

Their "Do It For Daron" campaign has gained tens of thousands of followers on social media sites and launched conversations in classrooms across the country about what has remained for years a taboo subject.

What more can be done to remove the stigma of mental illness, do you think? Are there initiatives in your community that you think are working? Please share your stories with us in the comments field below.

(This survey is not scientific. Results are based on readers' responses.)