President Barack Obama Monday pledged his administration will work to help destigmatize mental illness and bring it "out of the shadows.", UPI reported. "There should be no shame in discussing or seeking help for treatable illnesses that affect too many people that we love," he said in opening a White House conference on mental health awareness. "We've got to get rid of that embarrassment; we've got to get rid of that stigma. Too many Americans who struggle with illnesses are still suffering in silence rather than seeking help," Obama said. The conference's main goal wasn't to start a conversation but to "elevat[e] that conversation to a national level, and bring mental illness out of the shadows," he said. The conference was convened nearly six month after December's mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut by a man diagnosed with a form of autism, a neural development disorder rather than a mental illness. Obama assured the audience that the majority of those with a mental illness are not violent. People living with mental health challenges need to know they're not alone and "we've got to be making sure that we're committed to support those fellow Americans, because struggling with a mental illness or caring for someone who does can be isolating. And I think everybody here who's experienced the issue in one way or another understands that," he said. One in five adult Americans each year experience mental illness, and young people also are affected at a similar rate, Obama said.
