A CAMPAIGN to reduce the stigma of mental illness has had a positive effect, according to a recent poll.

A survey conducted by the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute (MWI) suggests that most people do not regard mental illness sufferers as a threat to society and that they can function normally in the community.

And to mark Mental Health Awareness Week this week the MWI is launching a fresh drive to chip away at the stigma by encouraging sufferers to seek help.

Just three per cent of those surveyed believed mentally ill patients pose a threat to others' safety while 72 per cent disagreed. And seven out of ten people questioned believed that mentally ill patients can function normally in society.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Maggie Cormack said that most forms of mental illness are mild and can affect anybody. And she stressed that mental illness was no different from physical ailments and therefore sufferers had no reason to feel ashamed or inadequate.

"Our drive two years ago was to reduce stigma and the figures perhaps show that we've been moderately successful with our campaign," she said.

"We believe that a lot of people don't know a lot about mental illness and we want to help people understand more about it. People are aware of their own physical well-being but they don't necessarily always think about their mental health but one in five people will suffer from some sort of mental illness at some point in their lives."

"The majority of mental illness is in people exactly like you and me ? leading ordinary lives doing ordinary things but at points in time suffering from something that goes beyond what they consider to be normal and what they can cope and deal with.

"A lot of people feel bad that they are not coping. They feel weak and they feel ashamed. The first thing to point out is there's nothing to feel ashamed of. People are not ashamed of having high blood pressure.

"They have gone what is beyond normal for them in their coping. If life seems very different from how it used to be and there's not a lot of joy, maybe they should be considering that they could be on the edge of depression or anxiety and at that point it is very sensible to go to their GP who can assess that.

"A GP is usually the first port of call but if they would rather not then they can self-refer here. In our experience a GP is very good at assessing what the problem is and how to deal with it.

"Most people with mental illness live at home and the large majority of those people lead pretty normal lives.

"But any person has the possibility of being vulnerable to anxiety or depression ? those are quite common things that I would deal with.

"Often it's because they've been overdoing things, they've got stressed because they've reached the limit of their ordinary coping and resources so they're mostly immensely competent people who lead normal lives but it's just become too much in whatever way.

"Then they can spiral into feeling so down that's it's not just a case of having a gloomy day but it becomes a serious depression."

"Medication is very helpful to help the brain to come back to where it needs to be. But in addition you have to look at what's caused this person to take on too much, for them to become overloaded.

"It's like you've been driving with your foot down and you haven't put oil in the car for a long time. You need an overhaul really.

"There are some people more likely to develop a mental illness than others. It maybe runs in their family. There's a potential genetic component which makes some people more vulnerable, but we're all vulnerable to some things ? it may be aching joints or high blood pressure. We all have our own particular vulnerabilities and it's the same with mental illness.

"For a lot of people changing their lifestyle is very important and the work that I do is very often to help them recognise what needs to change and how to manage that change.

"When I meet somebody I talk to them about their life and I would say that nine times out of ten they are busy, busy,busy, busy. There's no downtime or what I think of the nurturing aspects of life.

"They're doing too much and rushing about and not getting support and help from others. Once they recognise that and start to do something about it they can do a lot themselves.

"With the most serious mental illnesses very often medication is essential and it might be schizophrenia and some kinds of bipolar disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is very tenacious and can be very disturbing for the individual. For these more serious disorders medication may be helpful but it may not solve the problem.

"Horror stories are primarily about two or three different kinds of medication. One is a group of anti-anxiety drugs and the evidence is that some people can become addicted to them.

"We in this team very rarely prescribe any of these type of drugs and if we do it's for a short period of time at the minimal dose necessary and getting the person off after that minimum period.

"We're very conscious of the possibility of addiction although I have to say there are many people who takes these tablets and never get addicted at all.

"The other drugs that people fear are the anti-psychotics. In the past they had very unpleasant side-effects for example their gait would become unusual or facial expressions. We now have much better drugs and we also have drugs that can counter any first sign of these side-effects."