Below is an anonymous comment left under my post on mental health titled "Broken Walls". I thought it better to post it. The consequences of a breakdown in mental health are far-reaching and the strain on the family of the afflicted is a heavy one.

I grew up in a happy large middle class family.
When I was a child,I remember that I would ask my mother why God allowed some people to be mentally unwell.

I had never had any close contact with a mental breakdown until I turned 28 and my older brother turned 30 and began to act strange.

It started with him suspecting that his girlfriend and siblings were attacking him spiritually. Then he sough solace in church.

Atthis point I thought he was being spiritual, and that he had found God but I learnt later that spiritual fanatism is one of the symptoms of schizophrenia.

My brother had his first breakdown in 2004 and had two other break downs intermittently over the next 18months.

I come from a middle class, very enviable family. And in my worst nightmare I would never have forseen such a trial for my brother and for our family.

I have not been faced with anything more frightening. In fact in the face of life threatening circumstances, I laugh because I feel that nothing is worse than seeing a loved one in torment and not being able to do very much about it.

My brother is stable now, but I find myself worrying. What if he decided to stop taking his medication? What if we fail to watch him closely enough.What if?

I have no other anxieties, no other needs than to be assured that my brother will continue to be well.

Unfortunately pshychiatric treatment is not an exact science. And even the medication he is taking have unpleasant side effects.

Wole, what you did with your neighbour is very commendable. But you must take to heart that God made us all with different strengths. The burden you have for people is a gift and a curse. It is what drives you and what gives you fulfillment. Not everyone has this gift, this burden and you must understand that.