Interesting newspaper article

I was reading an article in a newspaper today; The topic was about how mental illness carries a stigma. According to the statistics 6 out of 10 employers would not consider employing a person with a mental illness/history of a mental illness which is disheartening. On the upside it did mention a few great people in history who suffered from mental illness. Here are the ones that were mentioned in the article -

Abraham Lincoln - Depression
Sir Winston Churchill (British prime minister during ww2) - Depression
Charles Darwin (naturalist famous for his theory of evolution)- Panic disorder
Marie Curie(discoverer of radium and polonium) - Depression
Florence Nightingale (famous nurse in the Crimean war) - Bipolar

These are probably just a few, i know that there are many actors and even comedians who suffer from mental illnesses. I think it's really inspiring that despite suffering from mental illnesses these great people didn't let it hold them back from achieving what they achieved.

I guess it's because people don't really understand what is mental illness. For many people, someone with mental illness is someone crazy, even dangerous.

People do seem to think that all people with mental illnesses are dangerous. Just because a few who have a mental illness go on a shooting spree o'r whatever is on the news, innocent people with mental illnesses who wouldn't hurt a fly get looked upon with suspicion. A classic example is shizophrenia; Many people believe that people with shizophrenia have split personalities o'r hear voices that tell them to hurt/kill people, when in fact they are more a danger to themselves than others.