I have learned the stories of people on this board who have family members with mental illness. These stories are heart wrenching, but also uplifting when I see how fellow freepers deal with such adversity and make the best of an extremely difficult situation whilst offering support to other people in similar dire straights.
This being said, if the woman were 30 and unattractive I bet there would be A LOT less sympathy for her. Think for a moment those of you that are immediately willing to assume she is "off the charts mentally ill" before you critisise those that take the equally likely opinion (given the facts as they are now) that she may just be a good 'ole fashion' liar. Point is, what is interesting are the reactions of ALL of us on this board to this story and to one another.
Not necessarily --- I think it might be even more understandable --- the fact that she is attractive and an A student might make some less understanding, maybe there'd be more sympathy if she was a sad geeky looking girl with terrible grades.