Insanity, or just depressed?

Again, about a small talk, this time it was between me, my younger brother and my older sister, with a cousin-in law in a sky dining restaurant in Pla-ngi. The topic was about insanity. Weird, huh? Yeah, I could not recall how the conversation turned into this weird topic. Actually it was when my sister told about her 'phenomenal' experience with a guy who was labeled as 'crazy man' in our hometown. A man who always was avoided by others because was seen as an insane guy. One day, he passed in front of my sister and said hello. The next day, he came and looked for my sister at the uni and started to tell her his story of how his mother died, his father remarried and his step-mom did not treat him well. And he said he got even worse when his father also passed away, and the siblings did not seem to care for him, -and it was worse because he used to be a spoiled boy, him late mom's golden boy. And he made it a habit, because he said my sister is the only person who assumed he is a normal person. He told my sister one day to buy him Rivanol, the liquid antiseptic to cure his wounded leg. He said he was just run amok that day, he destroyed things at home. Everybody was thrilling, but my sister walked with him to a kiosk nearby and bought him the medicine. After that, he sometimes went and forth to the rehabilitation center for curing his 'insanity', and my sister sometimes went to pay him a visit, in which he sometimes told her the story of his amok or sort of weird things such as "these crazy people here don't understand a thing".. Later, he went to Australia to his brother there, worked, got married, got a job and live well. He was restored. He was not insane. And he still called once or twice after he arrived in Australia, speaking like a normal person, appreciated the times when he was treated as 'crazy' by others, and 'normal' by my sister and other family who still have trust him.

Now the question is: so, is sanity and insanity the matter of perspective? Or simply lack of knowledge? He was just a depressed little boy, missing his mom, missing his father, missing the siblings. He lacked attention. He was just need attention, but expressed it differently. He was probably, could have been cured earlier by some doses of anti depressant. After all, at least he found his story ended happily.

The other story was about a relative who seemed like genetically has this depression trait from her predecessor. Her father died from a suicidal action, and she was too. She looked so normal and happy, but the other time she could be so down, so low, so depressed. But they thought she's just emotionally unstable. Apparently, one day, they found her suicide. She was just doing her errands like a normal mother and wife in the morning and she hanged herself to death in the afternoon. How tragic it was! But our analysis was that she might have contracted the bipolar disorder anxiety of some sort. A type that, some time ago we read on the newspaper that Catherine Zeta Jones was looking for a rehabilitation from, due to her roller coaster emotional state during the medication process of her husband, Michael Douglas. So that's the difference: the first case was in Rote, the small island in a developing country, while the latter was in the US, the giant superpower (or used-to-be one). The first was labelled unstable, stressed, the next was bipolar disorder. the first went unknown to the family, and she did not have the idea of what she had, the second looked for help and medication.

Maybe, this should just need to be a reason to give more education to the people of the not-so-educated population in this country, that depression can be cured, that some chemicals can improve one's situation and condition, that one is not necessarily crazy or insane just because they depressed. I guess we're going that way. In the big cities, it was more acceptable now that having a depressed family does not mean it's the end of the world. That some cures are available. That it does not mean a one must be in the prison of 'insanity' label, but they can be freed too, and live normal as others.