To the editor:

As a person living with a mental illness, I question why we are not treated the same as people with physical illnesses. When we are in crisis, we often wait weeks to see a doctor or sit in an emergency room for hours — days, oftentimes — before being sent to a psychiatric hospital in another part of the state. There, we are ‘warehoused’ until our insurance runs out or we are deemed well enough to be released. Unlike people with a physical illness, we can be forced to go to these warehouses against our will while others are jailed for minor offenses arising from their illness.

Psychiatric illnesses are physiological; they are real brain illnesses, not unlike Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, autism and epilepsy. So why are we treated differently?

Maybe it’s because our illnesses are stigmatized with the name “mental illnesses.” Maybe it’s because our illnesses affect how we feel and think, which may lead to unusual behaviors that are troubling and difficult to understand … even for us. But science has shown that thinking and feeling are physical brain activities affected by conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder.

Thousands of people in Lawrence are living with a mental illness. We are just like you. Why aren’t we treated at our local hospital like everyone else? Why can’t we receive emergency-room or long-term psychiatric treatment in our community when we have a crisis stemming from our illnesses?