What is your image of mental illness?

I was just overhearing a conversation where people were saying how sad it was that Kurt Cobain had killed himself. Apparently his daughter is behaving oddly, too. I was thinking that he was probably bipolar and that his illness made him both brilliant and depressed.

Before I got sick, my image was of violent, unpredictable behavior of a man with a crazed look on his face. His speech wouldn’t make sense, and he might be homeless. Same for women, for that matter, except less violence.

What about you? What is your image of mental illness?