Broadcast — Mini-Psych - Top Ten Myths About Mental Illness

Joseph Rochford, PhD, Director of Academic Affairs of the Research Centre, at the Douglas Institute, talks about some popular preconceived ideas about mental illness in this 2009 Mini-Psych school lecture, including that:

• Mental illness is a single, rare disorder
• The mentally ill are insane
• If you are diagnosed with a mental illness, kiss your chances of a brilliant career goodbye
• The mentally ill are more violent
• Mental illnesses are not true medical illnesses like heart disease and diabetes
• If mental illnesses are biological, then psychotherapy is useless
• If you have a gene that have been associated with a mental illness, you are condemned to experience it
• The mentally ill are weak or lazy
• People with a mental illness never get better