Newsletter
Mental Health: Stigma, Visibility, and Feasibility2026-07-13
“I think it’s really important to take the stigma away from mental health… My brain and my heart are really important to me. I don’t know why I wouldn’t seek help to have those things be as healthy as my teeth?”
—Kerry Washington
Mental health gets lip service as important in society, in people’s lives, and in healthcare. But following the actions and resources invested (time, energy, attention, money) tells a different story.
Why is that the case? Stigma, visibility, and feasibility. The three are related.
Despite major progress of people, including celebrities, speaking up about struggles and recovery, it is still a delicate or even tabu subject until something blows up in the open, with an ER visit, hospitalization or suicide attempt. The focus of de-stigmatization and helping people should be precisely before things blow up. This leads to the second related reason, visibility. Often mental health is a silent or subjective suffering. And thirdly, feasibility of treating and curing these issues has not been great, as a lot of psychiatry relies on imperfect diagnostic classifications, and trial and error treatment.
A solution to all three is blood biomarker testing for specific mental health issues, something we have worked hard for over two decades to develop and is now available (https://mindxsciences.com/bloodtests/ ). It removes stigma by showing there is something biological going on, it provides visibility with objective lab results, and it increases feasibility by helping match people to the right treatments in a precise and personalized way.
A bonus of all this is that medical health and outcomes will improve as well. Most medical issues have a secondary or sometimes primary mental health co-morbidity, that is dragging down medical outcomes, and often prevents full remission if not properly identified and treated. In many ways, the adage “there is no health without mental health”, holds true.
Live. Happier. Longer.
Alexander B. Niculescu, MD, PhD
Founder +CEO| MindX Sciences