People have a range of opinions about others with mental health or substance misuse problems, or who use learning disability services – but often these are completely off the mark.

Comments based on these misconceptions can be unhelpful for those at the receiving end of them and, in some cases, can actually make things a whole lot worse.

And it doesn’t just have to be a verbal opinion – presuming a person is dangerous because they have a schizophrenic illness or is about to rob you because they have an addiction means it is extremely difficult for them to live the rest of their lives well.

People who use learning disability services find themselves treated like children and denied the independence we are all entitled to.

Images in the media also add to the public misconception – dramas portray people with an addiction as ‘the baddie’, while images accompanying newspaper articles about depression usually involve a stigmatising ‘head in hands’ shot.

The stories and comments in the following pages are all genuine quotations from people in Suffolk and Thetford.