The stigma is so strong that HIV is hidden. It's virtually invisible here.

Many realities hidden behind wall of perception.

He said that my problem was that I was perfectly healthy and had the illusion that I would be able bodied forever. I could only begin understanding his problem if I gave up that illusion and that would be very difficult, given how healthy I was. I understand, I mistakenly said, and he said no you don’t.

Until recently, alcoholism among women was largely an invisible issue. The negative stigma of chemically-dependent women has kept them from treatment, intervention and prevention.

self-stigma is not a person's fault; nor is it a part of the person's illness!
If the public did not hold negative and stigmatizing attitudes in the first place, these would never have become internalized, causing people the painful and disabling experience of self-stigma.

It means a lot in that I always felt invisible and I was louder in my own head than I was verbally, ... I was torturing myself, wanting to say things and not knowing how to be. The stand-up was a way out but it never came easy. So to have something that's named after me make it, and that has history tied to Desi and Freddie and now Freddie Jr., it's unbelievable to me because I never really thought anything good would happen to me.