What Mental Illness Does to a Family

I heard recently of a woman on her deathbed who even after ten
years did not want to see her daughter. Or at least that is what her family decided she wanted or needed. Her daughter had publicly struggled with mental illness for years and had come to terms with it. The woman had her own struggles but kept them locked away. The shame of mental illness has fractured this family so that they were all at odds to know how to relate to each other, much less how to support each other. Many years ago Erving Goffman wrote a book about stigma, a brand people carry reminding them and everyone else what this person should expect, how he or she should act and how everyone else should treat him or her. Isn't it time we look past the stigma and see the person whom it brands? Families might then be able to repair the cracks and fissures caused by mental illness.