My take on why they told me to abandon my life wasn't because I'm a man, but because they thought I was bipolar - which at the time and even now I think is extremely patronizing and insulting - to me, they were saying that a person with a mental illness might as well just hang it up, give into it, and abandon any hope of a "normal" life of career, home, family, etc., you know, because "those crazy people just can't cut it".

I still find that attitude insulting. You know, I think a lot of people who do have serious mental health issues are capable of far more achievement than they may have had because of the attitude going into it from others that "they can't".

Maybe I am wrong on this - maybe that was just me, my situation and the place I was in then.

What do you think the attitude of mental health professionals is - that people "can't" - or as OE seems to have encountered, the opposite, that people are treated as if they are "fakers" trying to game the system?