Until you deal with deep clinical depression, or see what happens to a person in a manic high (or experience it for that matter) or other mental problem, you have NO RIGHT to say what we feel and experience is hogwash. That's like saying every soldier with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is faking it. It isn't true. These things are real, and frequently, without treatment, incapacitating, every bit as much as a stroke, or being under the influence of various medications affect how a person reacts.
Now, being responsible for actions is different than being sick with a mental problem. People do cop out.
These are two different things.
Psychiatry is just beginnng to move into a true science of what's going on in the brain, and there still is a lot of hoodoo in it, but it's a complicated set of problems, and with the recognition that there are medicines that relieve these symptoms, we are on the right track to turning it into a good real science.
Mental illnesses are physical illnesses that affect how we react to, perceive and analyze and deal with reality. They are not a failure of will, usually, although as a coping mechanism, one can use it as an excuse to not getting one's life together, even when symptoms are controlled.
This reminds me once when my dad was a little boy, and got sent home from school because he had an allergic dermatitis rash. The school principle called my grandmother up and told her to take my dad home because he had chicken pox. When my grandmother explained it was just allergies, the principle told her, "I don't believe in allergies"
But allergies are very real. Mental illnesses are very real.
Yes, but the question that vexes me is, are women with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder faking it?