I have been on drugs for about six years, give or take. Prozac and Buspiron. Prozac for depression and Buspiron for its evil twin sister, anxiety. There were others, too. I can't remember how I got started on them -- well, we can surmise I was depressed.

In mental health, we need to be wary of short-term, reactive "fixes" stimulated by agonizing events that may have emotional appeal but are no substitute for an ongoing resolve to apply proven means of systematically improving care and accountability.

When it comes to mental illness, we need more tolerance, empathy and compassion. We need to remove the barriers to help, and remember that if it were our family member or friend who had such problems, we would view things with a lot more compassion.

With all of the incredible advances in care for mental illness, there is a huge roadblock between people and the treatment they need: the stigma and shame that pervade our culture regarding mental illness.

Could it be that depression, even of a psychotic and/or manic variety, functions as an evolutionary adaptation? Yes, I believe that this can be true, though there are doubts on this theory.

Nearly 20 percent of Americans -- 44.5 million adults -- experienced some sort of mental illness over the last year, according to a new report from th...