Yup, I grew up in the 70's and early 80's, and there used to be even a stigma attached to somewhat innocuous issues like depression, and if you attended therapy then something must seriously be wrong with you. Things have changed a lot since then, to the degree that people have been going on talk shows for years to say things that used to be embarrassing to speak of in private therapy. We have a weird dual opinion of mental illness -- on one hand, feel free to discuss it in public, but on the other hand it can be used as an excuse to dismiss or ostracize someone and can still bring shame on the family.
There are a number of current problems, despite an improvement in being able to discuss things. For example, potential overdiagnosis of some issues (are some levels of distress "normal" or are they actual mental illness?) or armchair diagnosis by average people who have no actual experience with true mental illness issues -- which both allows people to obsess over their "various conditions" when they don't really have conditions, as well as allows people to unfairly diminish the issues suffered by folks who actually do have a nasty mental illness. Also, the reliance on medication to treat everything (sometimes medication is necessary and helpful) can sometimes take away from invested therapy and behavioral approaches to problems.
I grew up in an area where even tattoos would have been seen as reprobate/criminal influence, or at least having been in jail. Mohawks would have been like from a separate planet.
Overall I think parts of society at least have loosened up enough for such things to be discussed or certain demographics accepted more.
Yeah, I read this after I made my post here.
I mean, pharmaceutical solutions can be effective for some things, but typically behavior and perception derives from more than a chemical imbalance. Taking a pill is easy; realigning one's perspectives and perceptions is painful and can take time and effort and maybe never perfectly work. Something comparable would be losing weight -- yes, you can use chemicals to help with that, but there's usually a lot of things that need to be changed, whether it's new routines, eating habits, exercise habits, etc., that need to also be developed to help long-term.