Letters | Mental illness is not insanity: end the stigma before it causes more harm

I write in response to the recent article on how actor Todd Lawson LaTourrette, who is bipolar, confessed to cutting off his own arm with a power saw during a psychotic episode while he was “off his medications” (“US actor admits sawing off own arm, posing as war veteran to boost career”, November 3).

People with mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, can live very normal and productive lives. Mental illnesses are not contagious, nor are they usually passed on within families. And, if a person with a mental illness takes and stays on medication, then 99 per cent of the general population – most people they come into contact with – would never know they even had an illness.