SIR – I wholly agree with Sheila Harris, of Harvington, who wrote to your sister paper the Evesham Journal about mental illness (May 31) .

I have a long history of bipolar disorder (manic/depression) and as Ms Harris writes: “Mental problems are an illness, not a weakness.”

Some ignorant people still laugh at me and tap their foreheads. After 20 years in Powick mental hospital, I am used to this and normally simply ignore it.

We mentally ill people get mocked and ridiculed daily. I have lived alone now for 32 years – increasingly at peace.

Thank God, but it hasn’t always been easy.

GEORGE COWLEY
Worcester