The really sad thing is they aren't cracks - they're chasms and they will absolutely swallow up anyone whose family isn't willing to drop everything and become the safety net for a precarious individual that generally lacks the agency to keep themselves from harm.

In order for the outside world to even get involved, the afflicted person has to present a direct and immediate threat to themselves or others... and that gets you a 48 hour hold and often medication. Then they're sane again and released on their own recognizance and if they aren't willing to continue medication, they're crazy again. Meanwhile the social stigma is so great that nobody mentions it, nobody talks about it, and even healthcare workers are scared of legit diagnoses.

I have a friend. His ex-wife hears voices. She thought she was married to Kurt Cobain. She drove her two kids out into the desert and left them there. But her medical reports say "mental illness, otherwise unspecified" because if they wrote "schizophrenia" down she'd never work again. Period.

The only reason we're reading this story is that the afflicted in this case was a high school football star in a state that worships high school football. If he couldn't run with a ball no one - NO ONE - would give a fuck.