I certainly hope some of these comments are a perverted attempt at humor because many of them are cold and lacking in compassion. The human personality is increasingly being understood as in part being a pattern of chemical imbalances. Just a few years after high school, and near the end of the Vietnam War, my father committed suicide. He fell into such a dark pattern he began blaming himself for all the issues of our family. His depression hit as medical science was just starting to understand mood control with medications. Being a vet he had consistent care but was shifted between medications so quickly we often wondered were these genuine emotions or the medications? Years later as one of my brothers dealt with depression I learned that it can take weeks to months to see if a medication is effective. If it is  not withdrawal and starting another med can take months. If  my father’s issues had happened only fifteen years later it could have had a very different outcome. It took years to come to the full realization that the members of the family did not cause his downfall. There were large loads of guilt and mystery which were carried by his family for years. A major lesson from this period was often people’s issues will happen whether I am a part of their life or not. Often they are part of a pattern which have developing for years.