London, Aug 31 - A shocking 92 percent of the British public believes that admitting mental illness is damaging to one's career.

The three careers most damaged were doctors (56 percent), emergency services (54 percent) and teachers (48 percent). However, only 21 percent of respondents thought that it would be damaging to the career of a parliamentarian, despite it being illegal for someone to work as an MP with a history of mental illness.

The survey commissioned for the anti-stigma campaign Time to Change also found that as mental illness rises during the recession, people may find it more difficult to get jobs if they admitted mental illness in a job interview.

The study asked 2,082 people to imagine that they were interviewing someone for a job, and the interviewee admitted that from time to time they suffered from depression.

Despite the respondents considering this person the best candidate for the job, more than half (56 percent) would not employ them because of their mental illness.

Responses from the survey were also broken down by professions, such as health workers, lawyers and banking.