Mental Illness - Behind the Curtain

For a more detached, researched approach to this subject go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/12/AR2011011204068.html

Those who have witnessed a close friend or family member suffering from the disease know that the mentally ill are not always irrational. Even the most severe cases can have periods of lucidity. In criminal cases that can appear to be proof they are not truly deranged. Absent a few recognized brain malformations, diagnosis of mental illness is an inexact science.

Confronting mental illness up close and personal does not necessarily increase either empathy or understanding of the disease. I learned this the hard way. Two important people in my life suffered from mental illness.

One had periodic episodes separated by long stretches of normalcy. The other, more seriously ill, spent some time institutionalized; had some violent episodes early on; and for over 40 years took Thorazine, a powerful drug with serious side effects, to keep his illness under control. They both had strong family support. They both fought their diseases with tremendous courage, fortitude and determination and managed to live productive, meaningful lives.

There is a stigma attached to mental illness that makes families reluctant to seek help until the disease becomes unmanageable. Because most health insurance policies specifically exclude coverage for mental illness (I have heard the new health care legislation will end that), victims and their families often try to deal with it themselves. Mental illness, like other diseases, has many different causes, guises and symptoms. People who have not experienced it first or second hand often think the sufferers could just "snap out of it" if they weren't weak or self-indulgent.

Persons in the throes of mental illness can be unattractive, frightening, hostile. The true nature of their disease can be disguised by their attempts to "self-medicate" with drugs and alcohol.

The only things I know about it are: it is painful to undergo; awful and frightening to witness in a loved one; and very, very real.