Fear of the Mentally Ill: What the media has done to us

The most the general public knows about mental illness (unless their own personal lives have been touched by it) is what they hear on the news and read in the newspapers. I have often wondered why the media doesn't say "A sane man did this," when a man shoots his wife carrying his unborn baby.

But, it is reported on the local news when a mentally ill person has a run on with police on the public transportation system. What kind of news story is that? All these misperceptions only further stigmatize us. It is well known we are more likely to be the victims of violence, not the perpetrators.

I hope they never make me disclose on my driver's licence what I have to have a medical release for. The way things are with profiling and prejudice, I only realize more and more each day how much farther we have to go.