Mental illnesses affect 26.2% of adults in the United States aged 18 and over. That's 1 in 4 people in 2004 ("The Number"). Mental illnesses affect more than a quarter of the U.S. population, including me among the people who suffer from them. This hit me and changed my life drastically. Aside from the challenges of having a mental illness, it's the way people react to me once they find out. This is largely due to the fact that mass media creates a stigma for people with mental health conditions, which most of the general population tends to believe in the United States. I'll start with what I remember about my experience learning I had a mental illness. I remember suffering heavily from depression throughout my early teens and into my twenties. At that time I had tried almost every type of depression medication available and none of them had worked on me. It wasn't until I was in my twenties that my depression went away. I thought I was done suffering from mental health issues, but I was wrong. I was 30 years old and I was in the US Navy and I had been in the US Navy for 11 years. I was assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln and we were currently in Hong Kong for a port visit. I remember meeting a girl there and we spent the day together having fun while she showed me Hong Kong. I ended up asking the girl I was with why she did some of the things she did in life. He explained that he came from a very poor background and that this was the only way he could get ahead. I remember seeing the sadness in his eyes and the pain of doing what he did. It was at that moment that something strange happened to me. I told her some things, but the strange thing was that it was as if something was speaking through... in the middle of the paper... finding stability and maintaining the stability of one's illness. Many of these people overcome the disease to some extent and manage to play an important role in society. Work cited Claire Henderson, Sara Evans-Lacko, Clare Flach, Graham, Thornicrofi. “Answers to questions about mental health stigma: “The importance of social desirability and data collection method.” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Mar 2012. Vol 57, No 3. Nursing/Academic Edition. Web. 01 Apr 2014 . Emma E. McGinty, Daniel W. Webster, Marian Jarlenski, and Colleen L. Barry. “Media Framing of Serious Mental Illness and Gun Violence in the United States, 1997-2012,” American Journal of Public Health, March 2003: Vol. 104, No. 3. Nursing/Academic Edition. Web, April 1, 2014. “The Number Count: Mental Disorders in America". 2014.