You feel sick, you go see one doctor. Dat’s da rules,” Mr. Watanabe says finally. I frown. “Mom’s not sick.” He grunts. “Her mind feel sick, eh? Same same.”
Mental illness can be hard to understand at the best of times & Rumi's position is not one of those times. If she weren't in the position of dealing with her own survivor's guilt, feeling of abandonment, and so forth, maybe she wouldn't be making statements like this that make it sound like mental illness isn't the same as physical. Mr. Watanabe's attitude, never taking guff from her, points out that, really, it is and while her anger, her grief, is justified, the whole thing is maybe just too complicated to have black and white, Rumi & Mom.
