I did my graduate research paper on the biochemistry of schizophrenia . Intellectually , I believe that most serious mental illness has a biological component and that the visible results are partly a personality reaction to a body that can’t be trusted .

Mental illness is an illness , not an excuse for irresponsibility .

But you must decide whether you are going to pursue reality and health or to retreat into your fantasies . You have the right to retreat , but do it all the way and take up residency at the state hospital . You will be well cared for there . If you decide for reality , you will have a long fight ahead , but I can assure you that reality is worth the fight . When you make up your mind , let me know .

Psychological and spiritual components are as important or more important for you . Thoughts and feelings can change neurochemistry , just as chemistry can change feeling and behavior .

He fought, 'stigma of mental illness', all his life but refused to marry off his daughter to a cured schizophrenic, instead he married off his first daughter to a gangster, second to a fraud banker, third to an incurable Casanova and fourth to a cured cancer patient.

I didn't have the luxury of taking reality for granted. And I wouldn't say I hated people who did, because that's just about everyone. I didn't hate them. They didn't live in my world.

But that never stopped me from wishing I lived in theirs.