stigma on mental illness

I read this in the paper today and felt I had to write about it. (The Gazette, February 9th 2011. Pg A16)
The article said, "Shame and fear often prevents people from seeking treatment. The Canadian Mental Health Association found that more than half of people living with mental disorders said that they were embarrassed about their mental health problems."
I wrote here before about how it's inevitable that if you have mental health issues you are going to be ashamed of them. It's admitting your worst weaknesses and that you're not always sane. But must it really be this way? If someone has heart disease or lung cancer, should they also feel ashamed of them? Of course not. But their lifestyle choices could have contributed them to having the diseases, like smoking or not eating well. And yet, with a lot of mental illnesses, one has very little control over whether you contribute to getting them or not and still the shame is so strong. The brain is just another organ, as the heart and lungs are and all can develop disorders and diseases. It's not our fault so why should we be shamed and embarrassed? As with cancer, we need to be diagnosed properly and go through with appropriate treatments so we suffer less and consequently ease the strain on our loved ones and the health system.
But the public's attitude is generally of not much help either. In the same article they said, "The Canadian Medical Association found 46 per cent of the 1,002 Canadians surveyed for the 2008 National Report Card on Health believed that mental illness was "an excuse for bad behaviour.""
WTF?!! That's a sad percentage of Canadians who are ignorant enough to blame the victims of disease for their symptoms. That's like telling someone with epilepsy to stop trying to get attention by having seizures. As if they're doing it on purpose! It's like telling someone suffering from bad migraines to stop complaining and get on with life. These people are suffering and need treatment and help, not others judging them for it and telling them to just stop crying and get on with life. Believe me, if I could just get on with my life without help, I would've already. No one enjoys self-destructing and hurting the ones they love around them in the process. No one likes going in and out of ERs and psych wards just for the attention. No one has fun losing touch with reality and losing control over oneself.