a long time ago I tried reading some of the novels of Stephen R. Donaldson, author of the infamous "Thomas Covenant" series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Thomas_Covenant). they're not...pleasant. but there's at least one little aspect of those books that I feel I can better understand now—I hadn't realized, I hadn't accepted, that old-fashioned ideas about sickness don't just go away because they've been given scientific shape.
Covenant contracts leprosy, "Hansen's disease" if you will, and finds himself treated like a leper because of it—and he comes to feel like that's his place in society, he's a leper. it seemed like self-pity to me once upon a time but no, that's just how things are. with me...it's being crazy. the stigma hasn't ever gone away. the way you're treated hasn't faded, it's just changed costume. I might as well learn to love being "mad".
~Chara