To live with a mental illness is to live in two different realities: the reality of your mental state and the reality of your embodiment in a community. You can no more deny your community than you can deny your mental illness. Your responsibilities to others cannot make your suffering disappear any more than your mental state excuses you from your responsibilities. The challenge is to live in this tension, to honestly and accurately discern when you need to step away from certain responsibilities in order to heal, and when you need to bear those responsibilities with your suffering for the
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