Not quite alive, not quite dead...

Being around someone with a mental illness is like being around someone who's neither alive nor dead. You remember what the person used to be like when he/she was well, but that person doesn't exist anymore. That person is dead. But physically, someone's there, so in that aspect he/she is still very much alive. It's just frustrating though. The person that should be in there somewhere just wont come out, no matter what you do. If you cry, scream, laugh, whatever, it doesn't matter, because the person you used to know isn't there anymore to react to it. It's just a shell. An empty shell.