Thanks for your response, Sharon W. Allison. You aren’t saying anything I haven’t at one point told myself or pondered. However, I think our hardships are also very circumstantial and undoubtedly down to living in the U.S. rather than in the E.U., Canada, or Aus/NZ. The absence of universal health care has made everything worse.

As for bipolar, I wish you greater ease. I’ve lived with it up close as one of my partners — back in Britain — suffered from it and the disease upended his life and his career.