Where does the spiral into insanity begin?
When does the real whacko/ lunatic reveal its well-disguised, twisted face?

Can a sibling recognize the hijack, an episode or event when your misunderstood, pot-head brother’s behavior altered drastically; when his brain became overwhelmed by the invading intruder. How often is legitimate mental illness caused by an undiagnosed medical condition?

So you have a really bad headache; so bad that you go to an emergency room – three times in three consecutive months. Then you begin to lose your balance and your vision. Not like when you are super-stoned or stinking-drunk, a different category of impairment. Not fall-down, rum-dumb babbling. Not seeing-double drunk. Different.

You convince anyone still willing to listen to your chronic, nearly non-stop complaints about constant pain, to take you to a Different Hospital. For whatever reason, this hospital’s ER does an MRI and finally, you have an answer: a brain tumor. This tumor is malignant. This cancer is aggressive.These odds are not in your favor. How many others suffering with schizophrenia-like behavior (a.k.a.crazy) have brain tumors?

Our great-aunt was institutionalized in an asylum in the ’60’s. I’m old enough to remember going to pick her up after she’d had electro-shock therapy. I now ask myself if she had a brain tumor too? Was it another tragically missed diagnosis/misdiagnosis?

Mental illness is real illness; usually ignored and often misunderstood. If you are fortunate enough to have mental health, don’t judge; show compassion. It heals us all; the giver and the receiver.