In her piece,Therese describes herself as a child relating more to Christian mystics than to girls her age with their silly crushes on boys. But she concludes: “Now I look back with tenderness to the hurting girl I was and wished somebody had been able to recognize that I was very depressed.”

To return to Marsha and Melanie, this time they are both isolating in separate bedrooms, noses buried in their respective books, contemplating the futility of life. Quiet Melanie is just being Melanie, at home in her dark thoughts, perhaps even excited over the prospect of turning her ruminations into a brilliant essay. Marsha, on the other hand, is way out of her comfort zone, perhaps unable to cope.

Wrap Up

Recall that Dr Akiskal views state and trait as occupying the same spectrum. Making a clear separation, then, is not as easy as checking off a DSM symptom list. Indeed, personality and illness may feed off of each other. As Alex describes it, in his reply to my Question of the Week: “I consider this illness to be an alien to me, but at the same time it brings up my weakest points of my personality making me work harder on those to stay stable ...”

So who the hell are we? It’s a question we seldom ask.

Much more later ...