my God, why is it so hard to just be who I am? I think if I had a broken leg instead of a mental illness I would be socially accepted......people would look at me and commiserate - they'd ask how I broke my leg, it would be acceptable....there's no shame in having a broken leg........but with my emotional illness, I feel like I have to apologize just to get out of bed in the morning.....my Mom was all about appearances when I was growing up......so if there was someone in the family with a mental illness, that SIMPLY COULD NOT BE!! "You must get over this right now if you would like to remain a part of this family." And at age 8, I didn't have a lot of options.......again, if my leg had broken, my Mom would be OK with it......she would "let" me have a broken leg and still be in the family............so we have an illness, but it's not OK to have it........great