I spent the first thirty years of my life knowing I was somehow different than other people, and in my late twenties I had begun seeing a therapist after having been diagnosed as "manic-depressive with psychotic tendencies". Meds had made no significant difference, so I relied upon the effect of alcohol to help keep myself from "going over the edge" into some kind of greatly-feared place of no return. Today I still have the same diagnosis and even more, but I am no longer an abusive, madman monster drinking himself to death in order to try to remain somewhat functional while ever teetering at the edge of insanity. Much of anything I might say here is greatly dependent upon a wide variety of things -- no cookie-cutter analysis -- but trying to treat mental illness without dealing with the spiritual and emotional matters than can often drive it was like spitting into the wind and then wondering why my face kept getting wet. Spiritual illness amounts to matters of ego, fear, pride and/or ignorance in relation to our Maker, and emotional illness is typically a manifestation of same as evidenced by Mr./Ms. Feelings continually hollering from the back of the bus.

To be clear here: I am *not* saying religion somehow resolves mental illness. I am simply saying many people are looking in the wrong direction while believing that is the primary issue. Self-reliance and self-judgment are spiritually insane, for example, and then the conditions of the intellect and emotions can only worsen when the mind can find no relief. But if-and-when a sufferer is willing to abandon self-reliance and self-judgment, some mental and emotional healing can also begin.