Stranger Than Most

by SUSAN LAUTZ

One of the most difficult myths to dispel in the psych world is that mental illness is disproportionately a problem of the poor. People with mental illnesses do tend to BE poor, but that’s the effect, not the cause. Mental illness cuts across all categories hitting all socioeconomic categories in approximately the same percentage. It is one of the cruelties of depression that it can affect the ones whom we all think should be deliriously happy. People who have fame, fortune, love and leisure. But none of that can prevent the type of hopeless, bottomless depression that leads some people to suicide. Need I mention Robin Williams?

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