I find it interesting throughout most of my life I can recall society ostracizing and fearing people that it labels as crazy or out of their mind. I've written many times that I feel we have a horrible mental health stigma in modern society and that I feel it does more harm than good, but today I want to discuss a slightly different topic. Why is it that society has such a great mental health bias and what is the purpose of it?
Personally, I feel that it's a manipulative tool to keep people inside of the status quo. If our thoughts are too far outside of the norm or different from those of the others, then we can be labeled as sick. If we look at governments as essentially a corporate machine that uses people as a resource, then it's only logical that they would want to separate out the "sick" resources that could contaminate others. After all the most insidious disease that exists is an idea. They can spread like wildfire and burn away lies if people accept them as truth.
I feel that mental health facilities and care providers are trained and operate within a system that dictates how they do their jobs, much like teachers and any other heavily regulated industry. If the government controls how we are able to do a job and provides legal guidelines of our responsibilities, and they do this in many ways through funding and legislation, then they ultimately control who is or is not "crazy" or "out of their minds." We only need to look at the current state of affairs of society to realize that our mental health system is fundamentally failing and I feel it should be completely redesigned to stop viewing people as an illness and as a person first.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau said, "To be sane in a world of madman is in itself madness.” Unless you have blind faith in the people creating legislation and controlling the system, which I do not and have not since 2001, then it should be easy to see that allowing people that have questionable motives and agendas to dictate sanity is fundamentally flawed logic. I rather prefer to discuss these things with people that do know how to get outside of their own mind. If we spend all of our time thinking, we only ever think about thoughts and that's an easy way to get lost in our little world of expectations and assumptions about others and reality. Namaste.
your blogs are always been kind of different... nicely explained.👍
It’s a fight to the end, chaos is the ultimate escape.~*
Aye!
That's a good place to start.
My problem has always been with who defines the length and breath of sanity. Like you said, everyone has an agenda and anyone thinking outside of the agenda can easily be called mad.
Little wonder that people often term dissenters as mad or brainwashed by false ideals.
It reminds me of a poem I read in Secondary School - In The Navel Of The Soul by Kobena Eyi Acquah
My favorite part is this:
Blessings
I figure that crazy is closest to sane in an insane world. :)
Hahaha
One of my professors once said said sanity is a game of numbers
Definitely, I had pretty good therapist to begin with but decided to try the one in the woman's clinic to gain a woman's perspective on what was going on with me and the male one definitely felt a certain way and made me think if that's why he got me into the ptsd workshop because before that he's the one who got me into mindfulness/meditation. I made it clear I wanted to go the holistic route. Thanks for shedding some light on the matter and sharing your thoughts. Namaste 🌸
Hmm, you make some good points here about governments deciding on who is crazy or not, via regulation and subsequent funding. I'd not really considered that, but you're right.
Also, this.
LOL well if the certificate says it... :)
I believe the problem originates at the model of a mentally healthy person in psychiatry books. It is one model that all psychiatrists evaluate every case against. In my opinion this model doesn’t allow for insividuality and how we are sifferent. It consider that all people shall have the same attributes.
My least favorite thing about the DSM is the tendency to label people based on behaviors as if they define what type of person they are and behaviors can't be changed.
Oh, I hate that this makes sense. I have to wonder if I am one of those targeted individuals that the government wants to control.
I'm sure there is enough funded for it.
Everyone is a targeted individual for government control. The violence inherent in the system is that freedom is something that the government gives you and that they can take it away and tax you for existing. None of us were born and asked if we wanted to be a citizen.
I have always been a witness to the stigma around others with mental difficulties or physical ones. As a child, families more often would their relative to a certain degree. The control we grant to government begins there. These citizens are not seen enough, we don't see them in our schools, much of the time their education is ignored completely. As a people who care, we should try to change this and include in the education system, acceptance and care for others.
When we are young, we are told not to stare when we see someone with difficulties we are hushed away. The staring we do when young is not with malice. More with a curiosity of this new person we see. We should probably approach these people at times and ask, "can my son or daughter say hello to your child". These people are our neighbours. Having these people we hide away integrated into our Society should begin in school. Integration into all classes should be looked at. As a whole, the class would be responsible for assisting if needed. Acceptance of others would be a lesson we experience and experience would tutor this.
We grant those rights to the rule makers by not being there for one another. Society as a whole has a consciousness, ways to shift that consciousness is needed.
While what I have said above is more orientated toward those with a visible means why they have classed with an issue mental or physical appearance, I believe that is part of the foundation that forms the basis of the social conscious we live in. This stems over too many other areas of society in our minds to any related to mentality. We could probably discuss many any issue about the control which is held over us is there, is gained and does not change. We would in all of them come back to the same thing. We rely on those who have not done what was requested of them to now do what we ask them. We should find this way to come together and see an acceptance of each other. Break down walls instead of letting others build them between us.
I will open the lid let you all see out at least :)
I think part of society and learned behavior is to fear difference instead of embrace it. The truth that I've found is that none of us are identical and many of us spend our lives trying to conform to some ideal moral majority that isn't really what we want or believe.
I would say, there are two options visible to create a change, we can expand on the ideas of conformity, or reduce the dependence on it. To take either option will require funding. Those of whom would be charged with the development of this change would be the ones in power. Resulting in more control.
The solutions wanted to make the changes people would like to see, lies in a voice the speaks for the people, should this voice ever not it is removed by the people. This voice has to be created as it is not there now. To control change power is needed to do so. We the people it matters not of what nation demand change. Then a list of all the changes we want to see which as a whole we believe is a better way to live. And the power to make that happen. With all the knowledge we have all the tech we can manipulate the availability of renewable energy. We should be able to build something between ourselves without a central control. We need to plant a seed of some sort then water it to help it grow. I think we both lean toward a change in the level of control is required. My thoughts lean toward how to make it happen.
Yes indeed @clayboyn, just because a flock of birds is flying in formation does not mean that it is on course, and just because a lone bird flies out of formation does not mean that it is off course (this from R.D.Laing). Laing also stated that being well-adjusted to an insane system is itself insanity (echoes the Rousseau quote).
The issue of mental health can, IMO, also be seen as an attempt to break out, or to break free from this state of trying to adjust one's being to a crazy system. It is perhaps the peripheral area - from which one either 'returns' (to the true insanity of being well-adjusted to the Matrix); or one remains in limbo (just functioning/surviving); or one breaks through to the other side, where there is the possibility of whatever it is that freedom and sanity and natural living involve :D
We have to be willing to be crazy enough to not be insane to see the system for what it is.
Absolutely, to go out of our mind is also to be able to look down from above and gain new perspectives!
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When I was young my parents joked about taking me to a psychologist whenever I exhibited ideas that were "out there". They were quite supportive of me in most ways but there were a lot of things I wanted to share with them but couldn't.
They actually did take me to a psychologist to try and find a medical excuse for my poor grades. They took me to 3 until finally one put me on ADHD medication because I DID fit a description of that arbitrary "disorder". Later being forced onto medicine (or perhaps the effects of the medicine itself) spiraled into depression which led to more medication... I might have been better off just telling my parents that I think trees and animals and stones are talking to us and we just aren't listening carefully enough. :-D