The essay sounds oddly Darwinian in that it implies the mentally healthy in society will be most successful while the mentally ill are, essentially, better off dead as their "choice" to be "moody" inhibits success and therefore allow them to become the fodder that mentally healthy people overtake on the road to success.

Honestly --- whether or not a person wants to live as a product of their diagnosis is their own choice, as is the choice to be medicated. I've learned first hand about the perils of medication from an ex --- although her own conditions were not "moods" but legitimate mental illness that prevented normal functioning (including severe OCD). As with many, she had to switch medications a number of times to find the right "fit". For that reason, even if I receive a proper diagnosis, I will prefer going unmedicated.

This is going to sound naive and possibly ignorant, but I think what certain individuals perceive as mental illness can be treated with greater understanding and interpersonal communication. Friends, support networks, significant others. In some cases, therapists or social workers that put helping others above their paycheck. Any indication from the rest of the human race that this place called Earth isn't perpetually miserable and cutthroat. A sign that the individual's existence is meaningful and special in spite of the seven billion surrounding them. Compassion isn't weakness. Individuals genuinely helping other individuals, without asking for anything ulterior, shouldn't hold any detriment to one's own personal successes or failures. But who knows.

I don't think there's any right or wrong answer here. While medication has helped many stay out of institutions, overcome past trauma and function in society, other times legitimate mental illness is bastardized to the extent that it reinforces the stigmas others are trying to erase. Is it one's environment or one's predisposition at birth? Is it one's past or present? Is it stubbornness or coincidence? Medication or meditation? Sick or weak? Legitimate concern or pathological lies?

I doubt this debate will ever go away or what I should believe, so I'll keep asking questions and finding out more about everything I can.