Lightly? I hope it did not seem so. It is precisely because I see no stigma in mental illness that I was able to portray this child's difficulty so realistically. This story draws upon my experience. I worked in two schools that were dedicated to the instruction of children with mental illness. I remember some of these children with great fondness and wonder often what happened to them, where they are today.
This illness comes upon them like any other. They struggle against it, to separate what they experience internally from what is occurring around them.
I hope I created a sympathetic portrait. Unfortunately, there is no magic to help them. There are drugs that help to control the symptoms--the voices and hallucinations when they occur--but there is no cure. This is a disease the children will struggle with the rest of their lives. Unless we find a cure, a true cure.
No way I'm making light of mental illness. But it is not bizarre, exotic or mysterious. It's an illness. We should be able to speak about it, to write about it, to talk about it. It's part of life.