Mark was a freshman at the University of Colorado, thousands of miles from his parents who lived in Connecticut. He was his brother's younger brother who also attended college. He had never been in serious trouble with the law, with the exception of a speeding ticket when he was in high school. Overall, Mark was a well-behaved student. Her parents, Diane and Chris, were a happy couple throughout their marriage. Chris worked for a computer software company, which required him to spend most of his time traveling. For this reason, Diane was a little more attached to her children than he was. She was one of the first people to notice that Mark was slowly changing and getting sick. Mark's first peculiar behavior started near his university. He had chosen a location where he knew people would notice him carrying a microwave across campus. He threw the microwave directly at a window of a delicatessen. After doing that, he ran to the salad bar inside the grocery store and threw all the toppings and dressings on the floor. What is unusual is that after the chaos he created, he patiently waited for the police to come and arrest him. Following the incident, his mother was contacted, leading others to wonder if he was affected by "college life". What no one knew about Mark was that he was hearing voices in his head telling him what to do and that he was slowly becoming a victim of one of the many mental illnesses present in this world. Mental illness had not been recognized as a medical problem. problem until the end of the 18th century. They are generally considered “family disorders” because many people have had this experience with a parent, sibling, or child. In this book, Mark was the only person in the middle of his paper......Essive was just someone who sat alone and talked to himself in a psychiatric ward. Society categorizes these types of people as bipolar, but no one truly understands the struggle they go through until they are in their place. I never thought finding help would be this difficult for a person. Like Diane in the story, I would also have thought that the person was going through a “phase” in their life. My family has no history of mental illness. If this had happened to any of my family members, “manic depression” would have been the last thing on their mind. My family would have ignored it and maybe even punished the person for their inexplicable behavior. Through this book, I learned that you cannot take your life for granted and that anyone, at any time in their life, can become a victim of the mental illnesses of this world..