If you have no personal experience with mental illness, it can be difficult to imagine what it is really like to be affected by it. It is also easy to stigmatize or develop negative stereotypes of people with mental illness
Answer the following:
• When you hear that someone has a mental illness, what comes to mind? Do not be “politically correct”—be honest about your perceptions. How do they look? How do they act? Are they scary?
• Where do you get most of your information about people with mental illness?
• Are you affected by articles you read in the newspapers or see on the news? What misconceptions about mental illness exist?
• Do you know anyone with a mental illness?