One way all of this has been put to me is like this: If a person had the flu, you could respond to that by calling them ill. Which in short is an illness. Not all illnesses are long term, just like the above case, flu isn't forever. When it comes to mental illness I have found that sometimes it helps to look at it in a different way by looking at things society accepts more readily. Just because you have a mental illness/ mental health issues/ Mental dissorders what be it, doesn't make you a bad person. Just like if a person had, like I mentioned something like the flu, then the person would not be looked down upon as someone who is bad. But really I think the problem lies with how society looks at the terms "mental illness." It is not something that is placed there to put you out to be "bad" as some people think. Really I don't think the problem lies with the doctors and therapists and other mental health professionals, I think it's more about society. I think one thing we, as a society, need to work on is building an awareness. And if you think of a person having mental illness as being "bad", would a person with say asthma be "bad?" I guess really the problem, like I says lies with ignorance of society, yet the awareness is building. But an illness doesn't mean anyone is bad. Even if you dont' consider yourself to mentally ill, yet you think someone else is, it's really judging, when in fact, you also may have problems, who's to say what is worse? No one.

Jennifer