I have my personal theories about Why Mental Illness Does Not Attract Sympathy Like Cancer Does, and many other illnesses do including the flu! On my post about the movie "No Letting Go," I wrote that the boy character in the movie who has bipolar was easy to dislike. I personally did not find him a sympathetic character, even though it was clear that his parents loved him, that he was suffering terribly, that he did not want to have the behaviors that were causing him and so many other people problems. SorryShaped, wrote this astute comment about the boy in the movie as I had described him, "The boy you mention wasn't causing trouble, he was having troubles that affected others." That's reasonable, right? Well, not entirely, in my way of thinking. Mental illness's effects on others can range from "just" being unable to contribute anything to the well-being of the household or family, to (as the boy in the movie said) "I'm going to kill you all!" to being just a 'nuisance," as many people I see walking around or on transit in my city. This would not apply to all people with mental illness, but I will say that in a lot of cases people with mental illness are not easy to like. They can be UNLIKABLE and unlovable. I think this may be why public policy does not address the serious problem of mental illness, by things such as funding further research on medications, and alternative ways to help us. It takes a very special person -- like my sister, who is there for me always -- to hear a lifetime from someone like me saying "I wish I'd never been born;" "I wish I'd just die soon." I know that, in the case of people I've known, I get so tired of hearing the same, same, same complaints for months or years, that I drop those friends. Those friends were people who took no steps to help themselves. In my own case, everyone who knows me well knows that I do A LOT to help myself, but the depression persists. (I live with ultra-ultra-rapid cycling Bipolar II disorder.) I wrote two long letters to a large list of extended family members, many of whom, though related, are distant relatives I don't even know. (Other cousins I do know compiled this list and write to us all about family history.) In my letters, I explained that I have bipolar disorder and was neither diagnosed nor got any real help until I was 54 years old. I advised the family that they needed to know that my brother has clinical depression; my late dad had clinical depression, anxiety disorder, and probably bipolar; that other family members have mental illness, and that these illnesses are genetic. (My brother gave me permission to reveal this about him.) I explained that the family needs to know about this in case any of them have symptoms that they could get help for, without suffering for 50 years like I did. And that if any of their children have signs of depression or other mental health issues, the relatives can be informed and get their child some help early on. The letters went out to maybe 40 relatives. NOT ONE PERSON wrote me back about it. When one of my cousins was a cancer survivor, with multiple surgeries for 15 years, the family pulled together for him! We all knew about his cancer symptoms and surgeries, and there were prayers and cards galore. But for me? Nada. Nothing.