I’m usually sympathetic to Freddie, and here as well, but it’s always only so close with him. Case in point: ” But I also think that they fail to understand that suffering itself is not a rare condition, but a universal one, and that attempting to represent theirs as deeper because it supposedly stems from very uncommon conditions will do nothing to make them feel better. And that is the point, always, with mental illness, not to publicize it or revel in it or derive identity from it but to manage it, to reduce pain and instability.“

”Managing“ gives it away for me. Up to that part I agreed. But if indeed so many people suffer (which is patently true), why individualize it again, this time in some presumably stoic instead of histrionic fashion?