[ She inclines her head a little, not smiling her thank-you mostly because of the other content of the conversation, and is not quite willing to aggrandize herself, but she is also kind of pleased. It's not that anyone's disappointed in Gisela's career choices, but she doesn't get a lot of feedback from outsiders, either. (Her colleagues are more than happy to fill that void, but that's different.) ]

We study that in medicine, how someone's mental and emotional state impacts them physically, but you're right, it's more than that. It draws in everyone around them, even the environment. But — the worst thing is when someone calls wanting to end it "selfish". They wouldn't say that if it were a gaping chest wound, and for some people, that's what it is.

[ A pause. ] One of the reasons I wanted to get into neurology was to learn about the way the brain sometimes battles against itself. A few misfiring synapses, and...well, people are really very fragile, aren't they? It might be both the worst and nicest thing about them.