The stigmatization of people with certain mental disorders and chronic illnesses is still widespread. A stigma is a complex term which involves stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. A stigma signifies the ascription of discrediting traits to a person, making them unappealing and less valuable. Self-stigmatization is a common consequence of a stigma, and it entails the internalization of a stigma and self – identification with the stereotypes and prejudices which exist in the society. This paper consists of qualitative and quantitative research. Through the qualitative research the aim was to find out what people with mental disorders and chronic illnesses have in mind when talking about the term stigma and which meaning it bears for them, in which situations they expect to be stigmatized, the concrete situations and personal experiences of encountering a stigma, ways in which the stigma has influenced various aspects of their lives and ways of coping with the stigma, as well as the biggest sources of support in their lives. In the qualitative part of the research we have had 8 participants: 3 people with mental disorders, 3 people with epilepsy and 2 people with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. Semi – structured interviews, which were being recorded, have been carried out with the participants. The transcripts of the interviews were made and a qualitative thematic analysis was carried out. The quantitative part of the research has been carried out in order to establish the attitudes of the students of the graduate programme of Educational Rehabilitation at the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences in Zagreb towards people with mental disorders. 88 students from both years and all 3 modules of the graduate programme have partaken in the research. A part of the questionnaire by the authors Jokić – Begić, Kamenov and Lauri – Korajlija has been used in the research. Furthermore, a knowledge scale, an attitudinal scale and a social distance scale have been used. The knowledge scale consists of claims which have to be marked as correct or incorrect. The attitudinal scale consist of 25 claims, and the subjects are expected to express their agreement with the statements from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The social distance scale demands that the subject marks certain relationships with people with mental disorders as acceptable or unacceptable. The subject decides on the acceptability of having a person with a mental disorder for a neighbor, friend, educator or teacher of their own child, their own partner, a partner of their sibling, or a partner of their own child. The attitudes of the students are overwhelmingly positive, with a slight social distance towards people with mental disorders.