The horrifying implication for most people experiencing mental illness, following media reports about the heart-breaking tragedy of Luke Batty and his father’s history of mental illness and family violence, is that the mentally ill are intrinsically violent, needing medication and/or prison/hospital to curb their homicidal tendencies. Or else, imbued with such self-hate, they commit suicide. This is not the reality for most mentally ill people, young or old, yet these images dominate media reporting about these people. It is imperative that if we are to accord the mentally ill the respect and dignity they deserve, as well as the proper care they need, we must eradicate the generalised, and worse, ignorant assumptions about them to achieve a balanced and true representation about mental illness.