Have you ever known someone with a mental illness?

Have you ever known someone with a mental illness is the question I have chosen to respond to this week. I do have people in my life that have been diagnosed with manic depression and Bipolar syndrome. I have actually seen what they go through when they are experiencing mania and hypomania. One individual has accepted her illness wholeheartly and goes to therapy consistently and adheres to her medicine regime religiously and leads a very productive life as a result. The other individual who is much younger does not accept her illness and lives in denial. She doesn't want the label of having a "mental illness". She goes through stages where she is extremely happy and outgoing and then she crashes and sleeps for days and is very lethargic and has no interest in anything. She will, at times, take her meds for a few days and then decides to stop taking them and the cycle continues. She refuses to seek therapy on a regular basis because she says she doesn't want people to think she is "crazy" and she can handle it on her own. Its very hard to watch her go through this and everyone in her circle has try'd to be supportive and help her in her battles with this but until she accepts this fact and faces it I am afraid there is not much we can do for her. I can only hope that she will at some point accept the help that has been offered and embrace it so that she can live the life that is possible with therapy and the proper medication.