I'm so glad you phrased this in this way rather than the way that says people are nothing but their illness ie 2'4 million people are schizophrenic' - I see this so often. One of my oldest friends suffers with this but it is mostly controlled with meds. Thankfully, he never had the ECT. (Although it is sometimes useful, it often carries with it catastrophic loss of memories.) With him it was just the stress of life - new job, new marriage, new location etc. Just stress. (as if anything can be 'just stress', but I mean, no factors like drugs, alcohol etc). Anyway, I'm thinking of Bill now. Thank you for this piece.