I understand what you mean pachyderm and you are right, much can be learned by those that are deemed "mentally ill". And the closest we have come to hearing from someone who has struggled is the recent David Letterman interviews. However that isn't really enough meat on the bone that is needed to make the kind of difference I feel you have in mind.

Someone posted to me a while back "people don't know, nor do they care to know" and the more I work on understanding my own mental illness the more I see how true that statement really is.

What I have come to realize however is how my own mental illness came to be and that "if people truely cared to know" I may not be struggling the way I have been and for me, that goes all the way back. However, as I have been interacting with others here at PC, I have noticed that many of their issues could have also been avoided, or even if they did struggle with some kind of disability, they could have learned how to compensate for it and live a functional life.

I see so many things that our society does that is "damaging" to the average person's sense of well being, and I do know we can change that and that it could make a big difference in our society as a whole. I keep hearing the word "fundamental" used by all the political candidates, but the real infrastructure is not being addressed. I posted about that in another thread of yours entitled Democrats and Republicans.

There was talk early on about the 47% of the population that feels "entitled" and how disturbed the general public got when Romney said that this portion would not vote for him and to forget even considering that portion of the votes. Well, Obama spoke the language that brought him that portion of the votes, however he doesn't quite "get" the fundamentals either. I feel he means well, however we cannot just "throw money at it", we have to be willing to dig deeper into it and get to the real cause of it. And we also have to develope ways to address this deep cause in a way that can truely "change" it effectively. And "yes" it will be daunting, however, if we make a real commitment to it, we will begin to reep the benefits that will make a "real" difference in how "society can function better".

I do feel that if the voices of those that do struggle because of what is "not" being addressed are heard, you are right, much can be learned.

Open Eyes