Not As Good, Not As Bad, As it Seems …

Ever since I learnt of my tendency to experience anxiety and psychological diminishment (a.k.a depression) was classified as insanity, my interest in mental illness piqued; I would read anything on the topic.

There’s a deep cultural stigma associated with mental illness and I find that its, most often than not interpreted as a lack of faith.

Thank goodness for Dr. Goldbenberg who attempts to clarify this misconception; he notes that ‘depression is partially genetic and partially a product of our environment’.

So, just as in the case of diseases like cancer, diabetes or heart diseases, if you have/had a parent(s) or a relative who suffered mental illness, you’ve got higher chances of going down that lane.

Also, Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, a psychiatry professor and head of mood disorders program at Tufts medical center, Boston, in his book A First-Rate Madness enlightens us further on mental illness: ‘first and most important, mental illness doesn’t mean that one is simple insane, out of touch with reality, psychotic. The most common disorders usually have nothing to do with thinking at all, but rather abnormal moods: depression and mania.These moods aren’t constant. People with manic-depressive illness aren’t always manic or depressed. Thus they aren’t always insane; in fact, they’re usually sane. Their illness is the susceptibility to mania or depression, not the fact of actually (or always) being manic or depressed.

Dr. Ghaemi also includes certain personalities among the crazed as he mentions that most people are introverts, extroverts or neurotics and that by kindergarten our temperaments are usually set and tend to remain static or only slightly changed throughout our lifetimes: Some people are always a little depressed, low in energy, need more than eight hours’ sleep at night, and introverted. This personality type is called dysthymia. Other people are the opposite: always upbeat, outgoing, high in energy. They need less than eight hours’ sleep a night and have more libido than most of us. This type is called hyperthymia while some people are a little of both, alternating between lows and highs in moods and energy; this type is called cyclothymia.

He mentions that, these temperaments are mild versions of depression, mania and bipolar disorder and that these abnormal personality traits, which a person has all the time, as opposed to mood episodes that come and go, are essentially milder versions of mental illness.

I have always known that the WHO statistic of 1 in 4 persons suffering or with the potential to  suffer some form of mental illness in a lifetime(http://www.who.int/whr/2001/media_center/press_release/en/) is a bit down played, because according to Dr. Ghaemi, you’d only need just one episode of mania or two of episodes of depression in a life-time to classify as mentally ill.

If you considered this condition alongside abnormal personalities and those who experience mood disorders, finding a sane person would be pretty difficult.

Nonetheless, I think he has happened upon our sane brethren as he has coined a term to describe them; Homoclites.

Homoclites, we are told are rule-followers, bland, affable and docile and are very, very, middle class — middle of the road in every way. He also notes that these rarities have what psychologists call a “mild positive illusion”; they usually assume that they are more intelligent, slightly better looking than they really are and tend to overestimate their control over their environment. He also mentions that the mentally healthy tend to be over confident, uninspired, thin-skinned and sound proofed from the suffering of others. And that all these traits make for good leadership only when the times are peaceful but in chaos or crises those who are mentally ill or abnormal are better off as leaders, citing that a lifetime without the cyclical torment of mood disorders can leave one ill equipped to endure dire straits.

Again, in validation of my convictions that ‘there’s a good in every condition’, Dr. Ghaemi notes that those who experienced the common mental disorders like depression and mania were usually resilient, empathetic, realistic and creative and that most often than not, depression deepens our natural empathy, and produces someone for whom the inescapable web of interdependence …… is  a personal reality, not a fanciful wish( The Theory of Depressive Realism) while those who experienced mania tended to be more creative than those without this ailment. Resilience was found to be associated with both.

He went further to state that ‘saying someone has psychiatric issues, in his view …… is a compliment’

Katherine Nordal, a Psychologist who heads the American Psychological Association’s professional program even says that ‘some of those mental health problems can, in fact, make for greatness’. And other professionals were in agreement.

Ernst Fretschner, the first modern researcher on abnormal personality, who also noted the link between insanity and genius, stating that, if we removed the insanity from these people, we would convert their genius into merely ordinary talent. Insanity is not a “regrettable…accident” but the “indispensable catalyst” of genius.

That been said, I must warn that, we must not glamorize mental illness or abnormality as it’s a double-edged sword which could either make it’s sufferer a genius or a jerk in life – there seems to be no middle ground, at least for me.

If you are reading this and experience any form of mental dissonance, be at peace, there’s good in everything, find it and make the most of it. And, if you are mentally healthy, recognize that you also owe humanity your gifts, ensure that it’s delivered. Both conditions have good and bad sides, we must be content in the category we fall in. No matter what, never wish to be someone else whether they are mentally healthy, ill or abnormal. Be content with yourself, put up with yourself just the way you are; truly, this is enough.

 

 

Clare

 

 

 

References:

WHO

http://www.who.int/whr/2001/media_centre/press_release/en/

Ghaemi.N.(Dr)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/a-first-rate-madness-uncovering-the-links-between-leadership-and-mental-illness-by-nassir -ghaemi/2011/09/02/glQAG03gqK_story.html?utm_term=.2e0dc003709c

www.docgoldenberg.com/blog/depression-part-ii-what-is-depression

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