That's fair, but I would say that rarely has much to do with whether or not those issues are actually officially diagnostic in nature.

Marsha M. Linehan is one, Kay Redfield Jamison is another who has been diagnosed and struggled with severe mental health issues and used that experience to make great contributions to mental health treatment and research.

There is no reason a person can not be a treatment provider if they are stable and have a solid treatment plan in place for the times they become ill- like any other chronic illness.

As far as brain damage being turned around- this can absolutely happen. There are a few medications, mostly anti-epileptics, that can actually help repair damaged neurological pathways and it has been shown again and again.

Many different mental illnesses produce some level of brain damage over time, but the idea that damage is irreparable is no longer thought to be true across the board.