Reframe from offering “pity” to “empathy.” Don’t pity anyone. But if you consider life from their point of view…maybe you understand better?
I think one of the best portrayed experiences of mental illness…just an actor…but a painfully sweet performance can be found in the last episode of Ozark. The brother of a main character has intense bipolar disorder. He painfully describes remembering what it was like before “the thing that broke my mind” happened. I think it really helps understand what some people deal with in their heads.