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You mean another world leader tell Scotland, “What the Scots do is a matter for the Scots and not for a moment do I presume to tell Scottish voters which way they should vote”, and then goes on to tell us why we should vote no.

– Paul Hart To the rest of the world England is Britain and Britain is England. They are synonymous, interchangeable. Scotland is invisible.

-Scott Creighton Scotland as part of the UK plays a massive part in G8, and are one of the 5 permanent members of the UN. Separation from the UK will make us invisible.

– Charlie Robertson, Glasgow Everyone in the world is entitled to an opinion,so I don’t know why some people get so aerated by Mr Abbott’s comment.

William Dickie, Southampton Join the debate at heraldscotland.com moment and means of passing. In the last few days mental health charities have strongly criticised some of the coverage of the death of Williams, stating that this in itself can lead to other deaths as surely as furnishing the vulnerable with a handbook.

As a society, when it comes to mental health, we still talk in terms of us and them; them being a small group of people, outwith our own circle, who are intrinsically different. “We” are alright, Jack. “They” are the horror stories on tomorrow’s front pages.

Despite great strides made by mental health charities, this dangerous fallacy still persists. But everyone who has a mind has mental health. Just as we need to maintain our physical health and seek medical help when it falters, so we must accept that mental health needs maintenance. We are all on the spectrum of mental health. Some of us are blessed with strong support networks so that when tragedy strikes we can call on these precious human resources. But mental ill health is not exclusively about the fall-out from a traumatic life event. It can strike without logic or cause.

Some of the more invasive mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, catch young people just as they blossom into adulthood. They strike irrelevant of academic achievement; they strike in the heart of a happy home, and can rob sufferers of everything that a physical illness might do. Unlike those physical conditions, however, they are often endured in self-imposed silence for fear of the negative reactions of others, which merely compounds the suffering. Perhaps, then, it is no surprise to learn that a diagnosis of schizophrenia can have an impact on life equivalent to that of quadriplegia.

For us to be truly inclusive and empathetic to those who are brought low by mental illness, we need to acknowledge our own vulnerabilities and admit that, at some point in our lives, any one of us could be felled by a bout of ill health. By doing this, we can create a society where it is safe for someone to come out and say: “No, I’m really not OK”.

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