That's a very profound question. I have a question that I think relates. How do we know that a troubled person has a mental illness? It is getting to be so that anyone with chronic emotional turmoil is assumed to have a "brain illness." I question that, more and more. Even if the person does have a mental illness, there are other things that can complicate the course of it.

I think that what is "extremely highly unique" is the individual person . . . not their mental illness. Ten people can get the same diagnosis of Major Depression, yet each person's experience of that disorder may be very specific to that person's circumstances. Each of those ten people has to be looked at, in terms of their support network, coping mechanisms, maturity level, history of psychic trauma, income level, and on and on . .

A given individual can be having a much tougher time than most, coping with depression, or PTSD, or anything you can to name. I don't believe enough attention is brought to bear on all that is specific to a given individual's situation, which is not just the name of the diagnosed mental illness.