I feel a little sorry for both sides represented in this article, really. The family is obviously concerned for their own safety, for good reason, and it sounds like their neighbor is having issues dealing with his own loss in a rational way as well.

Very well put.

My parents had a bipolar neighbor across the street that used to scare them a little. Everyone thought he was weird and "crazy." He could be the nicest guy on earth (he regularly bought me and my sister gifts on impulse despite barely knowing us, like the time he brought me literally hundreds of dollars worth of Godiva chocolates for my birthday), but while manic he occasionally became violent. I remember him being arrested and then involuntarily hospitalized on multiple occasions, for assaulting his mother who lived with him. He'd come back, stay on meds a while, then he'd quit and the cycle would repeat itself.

That was one side of things.

Enter myself, diagnosed well after this pattern had been noted and established. My parents didn't believe it at first because this neighbor was their only real-life example. They tried to pass it off as "you must have a mild case" until the first time I ended up in the hospital, which put an end to that right quick. But at the same time I think it made them stop and think about the whole thing a little more carefully, that you can stigmatize someone or something very easily until it's in your life as well. They know me and they know my behavior. To them, I'm not "crazy" or violent (...well, that they know of *ahem*). I'm their daughter. It's helped quite a bit in the way of getting them to understand and recognize my situation, particularly with my mother who has this tendency to believe everything she hears on television. :P