Hi ragingnarwal,
You have my most profound and humble apologies if anything I said offended you -- offending you was not my goal.
You posted a message to HN asking for help; I gave you my viewpoints having experienced much of the same thing which you have experienced. I was only trying to help.
I wasn't trying to insinuate anything with my Einstein quote (which is also a Dr. Phil quote by the way, "If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting"). It just seems that that makes logical sense, that's all.
Finally, with respect to Thomas Szasz, I suggest him only because see, you can buy and read tens of thousands of books that will tell you (by esteemed professionals with Ph.D.'s no less) that there's a thing called "Mental Illness" (maybe it's true, maybe it isn't), just as there are thousands of books (by esteemed professionals with Ph.D.'s no less) that will tell you there's a thing called the Catholic Religion, the Buddhist Religion, the Jewish Relgion, the Islamic Religion, or any other religion, that God exists, and what will happen when you die (maybe it's true, maybe it isn't).
Well Thomas Szasz is the Richard Dawkins to all of those. He's the minority report. He's the fly in the ointment. He's the gadfly that Socrates was to the Athenian State. He's Dr. Stockmann in Ibsen's "An Enemy Of The People". He's what Martin Luther was to the Catholic Church in 1517.
You see, he stands mostly alone, opposed by huge numbers of academics (not to mention people) who oppose his viewpoint.
That doesn't make him right or wrong, but you see, there is a saying that "one should leave no stone unturned in the quest for truth". That's why I offer you that stone.
So, to recap, I apologize again, profusely.
I meant you no harm/injury/wrong in my response to your comment; you asked for comments from the HN community; I gave you mine, and again I apologize if they were offensive, irrelevant, misleading, or whatever have you.
They were one man's opinion. No more no less.