Mental Illness vs. Physical Illness

Q. Why would a person make fun of someone having a mental illness and not a person with a physical illness?

Q. Will society ever accept mental illness as an illness?
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Use has been made of the material at the following sites in answering these questions:

http://www.cmhask.com/mental_health/index.php#MYTHS
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=mental%20illness
http://www.scwla.org/webpages/July2002/HealthCol%5B1%5D.htm

Q. Why would a person make fun of someone having a mental illness and not a person with a physical illness?

Very few people know much about mental illness. It is human nature to fear what we don’t understand. As such, mental illness is feared by many people and, unfortunately, still carries a stigma. People associate mental illness with personal weakness. It is mistakenly seen as a character flaw. They fail to see that it is an illness and it has nothing to do with being weak or lacking will-power. They do not understand that those persons who are afflicted with mental …