An eating disorder is an illness. There are treatments for it, but unless the medical community is trained to identify the illness in women of color, a lot of women suffering will not get treatment.

While depression may be a genetic disorder, it has a strong environmental component. And, for a child, a parent's illness is a very strong environmental effect. You want to reduce that effect so that you can have a beneficial effect on the child.

Psychosis can happen out of the blue, to anyone, and no one knows why. Not even the best doctors on the planet.

And that’s why Mom is always so afraid. If we don’t know what made me sick in the first place, how can anyone guarantee I won’t flip out again?

Yes, assuming need and resources. I do consider the AIDS illness as a serious, total community problem.

Interestingly, the patients who presented to me self-diagnosed [with Dissociative Identity Disorder had tried to tell previous therapists of their plight, but had been disbelieved. These therapists had used fallacious "capricious criteria" (KIuft, 1988) to discredit the diagnosis; e.g., that the patient could not possibly have MPD because she was aware of the other alters [sic!].

I think it's great. As long as they're not moving out of the community.