The mistreatment of the mentally ill has been an issue since the Middle Ages. Its causes unknown, the mentally ill were subject to horrifying avenues of treatment throughout the history. Even now, we know little of the causes of mental illness, and thus stigmatize those who are effected by them. The key to dispelling misconceptions is to treat mental illness like any other physical disease--because that is what it is. This prejudice affects the mentally ill as individuals and as a group, and needs to stop.