I'm afraid all this reminds me of actor's school. In the best one's, we learn all the methods of replicating on stage what looks to an audience as if it were really being done for the first time. Oddly, this works the best when done very often in rehearsal by the very best thespians. Yet, the student is taught to become the part. The character has to come from the depths of you to come across in the strongest fashion, and we are there, after all, for 'theater', the audience, the closest thing to truth one can live for a moment.
'At the end of the day', as the saying goes, it has always been clear to me that, as much as the person being played is the actor, in that moment, there is another dimension.
Humans are complicated critters, and the brain is almost beyond its own capacities to understand itself, even physically; anatomically. As for psychology, it is re-invented with each birth. There is a consciousness within that really never sleeps. It dreams us our dreams, it remembers even events while the person is under total anesthesia. It knows 'who' we 'are'.
So, as immersed as one can possibly be in an acquired 'reality', there is the self that knows.
It is unfortunate that some of our brothers and sisters appear to suffer from a condition that so many of the rest of us can neither imagine or very much relate to. They are wished well. They must remember that they are a mighty few. They have some current waves to ride and, thus, some power. Nothing could be more ephemeral. Then, a minute percentage of the dog will be entirely unable to wag the rest of it. There are ways to deal with this 'condition' without necessarily stirring up endless hornets' nests.
Certainly, a person in need of help should be helped when possible.
Certainly, such a highly personal, individual view of 'self' and existence cannot become a standard the rest of society can adopt.