Having a characteristic relative to mental illness is a stigma which leads to discrimination by many who have not been diagnosed with a mental illness.
Discrimination is a great and multifaceted problem within the mental health system.
It hurts people in many different ways. People diagnosed with a mental illness understand it only too well. Not only may they feel shunned by others, but they may also feel less capable because of the stigma and thereby accept it as correct. In this way, it is a sort of stigma from within oneself. It is wrong that many people who work in the mental health field are paid lower salaries than people in other occupations.