Albert Schweitzer once said: " It is our duty to remember at all times
and anew that medicine is not only a science, but also the art of letting our
own individuality interact with the individuality of the patient."

The existence of mental illness challenges us to expand our personal
vision of what courage is. Those with mental illness, developmental disabilities,
addictions, and those who suffered abuse - and the families who help them -
deserve homage for the daily courage of dealing with the suffering inherent
to their problems. There are people who struggle with co-morbidities - combi-
nations of mental illness and chemical dependency, or mental illness and
developmental disabilities. I have so often witnessed irrepressible courage
among people who suffer from the mood swings of bipolarity, or the auditory
hallucinations of schizophrenia, or a combination of both called schizoaffective
disorder. These illnesses tend to be lifelong situations, and the people afflicted
with them have to contend with the idea of living their life with tremendous
emotional and psychogenic limitations. Each day's attempts to stand up to
the mental dragons require extreme courage.

Imagine for just a moment that you hear voices commanding you
to do things that you desperately do not wish to do. If you can, imagine
seeing things that are not truly there. Or that you're suffering from the
misperception that the world is against you.