A reader writes:
There are many ways to suffer a mental illness. I have spent half my years mentally ill; the other half getting well.
It requires a stretch of empathy to detect the sense in the senseless rampage; after the Virginia Tech killings my first inkling was that this is a human being who hates reality. Not just life, not just people, but reality. Part of this hate is from the paranoia, but part is from the sinking feeling of the abyss.
Because my father was wealthy, well connected, wise and willing to help, I had the best care available; and still it was, and is, a struggle. But I see those who got left behind, and I see what havoc they wreak. There was something within me; maybe the inability to execute a plan, maybe this (perhaps Jewish) revulsion to violence that kept me from the outbursts we see too much of these days.
But not everybody has the care, requiring human and financial resources, that I had.
Thank you for giving me a part in your conversation.
The Dish 