The harmful effects of mental illness can be viewed from three perspectives: personal, family and social. For the individual, as mental illness tends to affect daily life, learning, work and socialization, patients tend to have lower self-esteem. There may be anxiety and depression, which in the long run will affect the patient’s personal development. The harm to the family is mainly due to the fact that the mentally ill may require long-term care from family members. Or there is little emotional link with the family, which may bring greater burden and pain to the family. The harm to the society is that the mentally ill may injure themselves or others, or they may lose their ability to work, thus bringing harm and burden to the society.