With medicine, treatment by both a psychologist and a therapist along with a good support structure a mentally ill person can be a productive member of society. You wouldn't even know a person was mentally ill if you talked with them every day.

Mental illness is like a physical illness. It needs to be taken care of. The person doesn't need to be treated like a leper, they aren't contagious and very few are actually "dangerous". You've been watching horror movies and swallowing the media koolaid far too much.

Unfortunately there are a few, very small percentage of dangerous mentally ill people. Yes. But to call all mentally ill people dangerous, to mistrust all of them and mistrust them as you are doing is not only dangerous to them, it is dangerous to you because it will breed a society that judges any slight deviation from the "norm" as a mental illness. By "deviation from the norm" I mean free thought. Yes. You will be called mentally ill for showing emotion or free thought.

What you do now echoes and remember that echoes bounce back.