The Turtle's Shell of Mental Illness

(This was a facebook status update I made. I had been seeing a lot of posts about if James Holmes was black he would be a gang member, and arab a terrorist but because James Holmes is white it is mental illness, like it is a some kind of excuse....)

Mental illness is not a cop-out. It is a much grimmer life than being born and raised in the wrong location. Maybe with some luck and hard work someone can get out of a bad neighborhood or bad religion. Mental illness never leaves. It has to be defeated everyday and follows the sufferer wherever they go. It's like a turtle carrying its home wherever they go, but this is not a safe place to hide. It's a prison. And these days more and more pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies are finding meds and treatment for mental illness not profitable. So it is left to the individual to battle every day to keep the shell on their back as small as possible. And maybe they can keep it a barely noticeable speck for most of their lives but it never disappears completely.