Sharing the Good, Bad, the Tastefully Coordinated

I got a text this past week. It's two sentences were as weighty in content as any novel. In two sentences a whole world of hurt, frustration and pain was not only revealed but explained. My ex said "I have been reading about bipolar.  I seem to fit the profile."  We live in a society that is open and almost irritating in its divulging of details about people's life.  Saying this in a blog where I am telling my deepest and darkest secrets is a perfect example of this honesty run a muck.  Catherine Zeta Jones has come forward and revealed her struggles and now it seems that everyone is facing some kind of personality disorder.  Charlie Sheen and Lindsey Lohan have become the poster children of insanity and we as a nation just can't get enough of them. Now after all that has happened, my ex has found his niche in the world of mental illness. I am not saying this because I disagree.  In fact, I think he of all people is most qualified to explain what he has done and why. Its just I wonder if that we are kinda' replacing Flip Wilson's "the devil made me do it" with "my bipolar made me do it". And I am not sure if that means that I have to be even more understanding and forgiving than I have been.  Do I have to pray for him more or can I pray for him less? I know that a small part of me wants to yell "See, I told you that it was you" but another part feels terrible because I do believe he has a mental illness and I have been discussing his "devil made me do it" actions pretty openly.  I also wonder that if every time someone does something horrible that has terrible consequences to other people, we as a society keep coming up with a diagnosis, will we ever get to the point were we say enough is enough.  Don't you have to say, "OK, I may have a mental disorder, but I did all that stuff and hurt all those people, I did it"? Without taking responsibility for our actions, can we ever take responsibility to get better, to do better? If we are victims of a mental illness, and if every time we do wrong, its the disease; we lose what separates us from animals, free will.  That and our ability to accessorize.  Without those two, we all might as well, move into the caves. Believe me his text leaves a lot unsaid.  But I know he knows the truth or at least is looking for it. And I do so hope that his children don't get him one of those upright tombstones when he passes,  it will be so hard for me to dance on it.  Now I need to go out and buy a pair of earrings and choose the paint color for my cave.  And as to my blog, I also got an email from two other people who said "I know what you mean".  To someone who wants to share through the written word, there is no greater compliment, than to be told " I read what you wrote, and I found a piece of myself in your words". Thank you for letting me share.