Comment by godelski

In other words, being able to live with a condition is not the same as the condition being debilitating.

A lot of mental illnesses go unnoticed by others because they're often very easy to hide (and you're encouraged to hide them). Thinking that you can't be in the top 5% of earners and are just doing "speed for fun" is like thinking you can't be suicidally depressed just because you are a comedian. Hell, most people were surprised by Anthony Bourdain despite him being open about his depression. What you see is not reality, so don't be quick to judge. You'd be surprised how many peoples mental states are a house of cards but look like they're living in the finest of mansions.

Seriously, comments like the GPs are not only bad takes, but actively harmful. It perpetuates the belief that people should hide rather than seek help. The big issue with mental illnesses is that they are typically extreme versions of normal behavior and we often paint them as unrealistically extreme and constant. They're highly variable and the most common thing to happen is people only seek help when they're in the spiraling states, where they are incapable of getting that help, but will not seek it out when they've normalized.

Plus, you don't know if they're in that top 5% post medication and would not have been prior. You don't have the counterfactual power to make such judgements.