The longer I live,
the less certain I am of many things,
but of the things I am sure,
the more certain I am.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

I hold space for the mentally ill

Originally posted to my Facebook on July 8, 2026

Disordered thinking isn't a symptom anyone would choose to experience, if they truly understood it. And people on the outside of it rarely understand it.

Just a few things:

Roughly 23% of the general adult population experience mental illness, and 40+% of the prison/jail population.

Abuse of drugs and alcohol, often referred to as self-medicating, affects about 50% of the mentally ill population.

According to a 2024 article in JAMA, Two-Thirds (67%) of un-housed people have mental health disorders. And a 2024 article on the KFF (the organization formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation) website, indicates Serious Mental Illness (SMI) affects approximately 22% of homeless adults, a rate nearly four times that of the general population.

Sometimes human behavior is off-putting (particularly of the mentally ill), but often it is a call for help.

A dirty, smelly, messy, violent, despairing, heart-breaking call for help.

Glenn Close on mental illness / CNN 2013

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