A Message to Those Struggling With Mental Illness – Part Two

In part one of this article series, I outlined the fact that mental illness can be classed into three categories:

• Category one: The severely mentally ill
• Category two: Shrink induced mental illness
• Category three: Those suffering from chronic shitty life syndrome

I genuinely believe confusing the three is doing disservice to those in category one who really need our care and support.

Only if you have experienced the misfortune of seeing the suffering of a mentally ill loved one will you understand, otherwise it is difficult to comprehend the suffering that is associated with mental illness. 

Mental illness is devastating. 

It inflicts lots of pain and suffering on the affected individual and their loved ones. 

Therefore, it is not something that should be taken lightly.

Classifying people unable to cope with the difficulties of life as mentally ill is wrong, it is a trivialising of a serious disease that has and still continues to devastate many individuals and families.

Mental illness is a severe illness that is brutal; it has resulted in enormous human suffering and is still doing so today.

Fake Mental Illness

Unscrupulous doctors and those who market mad medicine would like us believe one in four of us are mad.

Yes, you read it right.

According to the mad medicine industry, a quarter of the population of the United States and the United Kingdom are crazy! 

In watching Donald Trump and some of his supporters, some may start to believe this to be a fact.

But in fact, it is as far away from the truth.

Yes, there are many people facing complexities beyond their current ability to cope.

But there is a difference between someone’s inability to handle complexity and them being crazy.

That is the problem with the classifications of mental illness today. 

The majority of people diagnosed as mentally unstable are those down on their luck, or those incapable of handling the stresses of everyday life.

They belong to category two and three of the mentally ill scale. 

This fact does not mean we should abandon them.

It simply means we need to develop a different strategy for treating such people.

But before any such treatment can be devised or administered, we need to acknowledge that the large majority of people classed as crazy are simply those down on their luck or those incapable of dealing with life’s hardships.

If you are one of those in this category, I have a few words of wisdom for you.

Believe You Are Well

Tell yourself you are not crazy and believe it irrespective of what the shrink says. Shrinks are in the business of making money. The more people they diagnose as crazy, the more money they make. 

A wiseman told me stress is demand.  Reduce the demands in your life and you will reduce your stress, which is probably the number one cause of mental instability.

We sometimes create unnecessary stress for ourselves with our own expectation, or the perceived expectation of others. 

Stop living your life according to other people’s dogma. 

Just live within your means and you will be ok. 

Be thankful for the little you have; appreciate it and share it.

The happiest people on earth happen to be the poorest.

There is a lesson there for you.

You Got to Believe

Centuries ago, the Catholic Church ruled the world. 

Everyone lived according to some form of religious doctrine. 

Then came the industrial revolution and the enlightenment and everything changed.

People stopped believing in a higher power. 

While it appears liberating that religious doctrines are no longer forced down our throat, the problem is, there is a void that was left behind when religion was removed from our lives.

We as spices are meaning seeking creatures.

We seek meaning in everything we do. 

Without meaning, we feel empty.

So, a wise counsel for you is, you need to believe in something.

Heck, believe coronavirus was developed in Bill Gates’ room. 

As obscure as that might sound, but as least you will believe in something.

Because the alternative, which is emptiness, is bad. 

Father Forgiveness Them

So many people walk around with a poison called hate.

We are angry at someone who did something to us two hundred years ago.

We are angry at our parents.

We are angry at our high school football coach who did not place us on the first team. 

We are angry at our children for not visiting us every weekend. 

Heck, we are even angry at our pets. 

It’s anger, anger, anger.  

I am saying to you, the most powerful medication for category two and three mental illness is forgiveness. 

First forgive yourself and forgive anyone that ever transgressed against you.

You cannot imagine the weight that would be lifted from your shoulder and mind.

When you forgive someone, you do not only free that person, you also free yourself.

No matter how potent a mad medicine is, no mad medicine can come close to the healing power of forgiveness. 

Gimme Hope Jo’anna

I was not equating poverty with happiness when I said the poorest people are happier. 

Most of the time, people in desperately poor situations remain alive because of hope.

Suicide rate in wealthy countries is more than in the poorest part of the world.

Why is that the case?

Hope.

We from poorer countries have hope.

Hope in a better tomorrow.

Hope in a better future.

If you live in a society of plenty, there is nothing to hope for.

Hence the emptiness.

Hence the suicide. 

I am saying to you, you need to have hope. 

Conjure up something to hope for, but hope because without hope life is not worth living. 

As Paul Tremblay, rightly observes  “Hope is a desperate man’s currency.” 

Hope is a good thing and good things never dies.