The Stigma of Illness

Imagine being interviewed about your work as an AIDS activist and the reporter asks you how many men you've slept with. Or confiding in a friend that you were just diagnosed with lung cancer, only to be met with the accusatory question, 'How many packs a day do you smoke?' Or working up the never to tell a family member that you have bipolar disorder, only to be told, 'That's not a real disease.'