Mental Illness

As you read through this blog, you will read many stories which describe symptoms of mental illnesses.

Specifically, there are stories of people with Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms, Narcissism symptoms, Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms, Attention Deficit Disorder and Manic Depression symptoms, as well as those with alcohol and drug addictions.

Growing up as I did, where people spoke honestly and openly about their struggles, diagnosis and medications, I learned a great deal about each of these conditions. Not only did my family members struggle, but also I had a lot of access and exposure to other adults in our community who were family friends and acquaintances.

My mother specifically would bring me along to many of her volunteer commitments where I would meet people struggling with all of these issues. And as an adult, I would go on to continue volunteer work with similar communities.

At this point I have close to 50 years of education in these matters. I am not afraid of my own challenges or those of others. I offer the stories to bring dignity and hope and new ideas to people on all sides of the struggle.

I have heard the phrase that "Mental Illness is learning to communicate so that you do not become victimized." And, watching my family and those of my friends wrestle with these issues, I can say, there are definitely huge gaps in connection and communication between people at the level of Dabrowski's Primary Integration/Level 1 and those who are struggling with mental health challenges. 

Usually there is one patient struggling with a mental health crisis--who's no longer at Level 1, along with many family and friends who are helping and supporting and communicating at Level 1. Because of the nature of one vs. many, one who can not communicate the same way as the many who understand one another just fine, there is an inherent imbalance.

Level 1--aka internal uncomplicatedness, gives those people the perception that they do things the right way and think about things the right way, and that they are the healthy ones by default. They have the power in the situation when someone they love is experiencing a mental health crisis. The person who is typically at greater risk of being actually victimized is the person in crisis. This is true even if the well-meaning family and friends are uncomfortable, scared, inconvenienced or otherwise by the symptoms of the mental illness. 

Feeling like the victim of someone else's mental health crisis is not the same as the experience of being alone, unable to communicate effectively, and unable to advocate for one's self. That is why state and federal laws typically favor the patient. Obviously, this is not always the case, as people experiencing mental health crises can also present a risk of harm to themselves or others. 

Most frequently, people's inability to connect, relate and work together---because they are at different levels of personality development---to resolve the immediate crisis, as well as all the others that follow, lead to people on all sides feeling victimized and disconnected and defeated by the situation. Knowledge of Dabrowski's theory could provide greater understanding of these gaps.

In Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration, mental illnesses are seen as ordinary and necessary crises and steps toward the development of one's individual personality. The presence of Overexcitabilities, whether they are psychomotor, intellectual, sensual, imaginational or emotional gives evidence of a person's developmental potential toward such effort. And their presence inherently means a gifted person will have a deeper and broader experience than a neuro-typical person. In DSM-V parlance, descriptions of his overexcitabilities are nearly identical to descriptions of common mental illness diagnoses like Attention Deficit Disorder, Bi-Polar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder among others.

Dabrowski is not alone in doubting the existence of true mental illness and coming up with alternate theories. There are movements underway to change the way we approach things like psychosis and mania and schizophrenia and to place those events into a primitive people’s context, where individuals undergoing such events are seen as undergoing sacred connections between the worlds of spirit and earth.

Many tribes leave someone in this fragile state to their own devices until such time as their symptoms subside, allowing them to return to everyday life. When they are ready, they are typically invited to share any insights they learned in the experience to assist tribal leadership with the spiritual lessons they learned during their event. These individuals are seen as healers of sorts.

I have read about current day psychiatrists and hospitals employing this type of approach, and several authors are writing books suggesting that a mental health crisis is a self-healing and self-limiting event to assist the psyche. I share this to give you hope about alternative treatment ideas, as well as new ways to view mental health challenges.

In the Gifted community, taking mental illness at face value, and treating it with current methods, primarily talk therapy and medication can sometimes be viewed as dangerous to a gifted person. People seem to fear that medicine specifically will subdue one's gifts and thinking of one's self as flawed and chronically ill will take away a person’s motivation and energy they need to apply toward growth and development.

I can only say my personal experience has been that talk therapy and medications have enhanced my life and my family members lives. My approach is to consider all healing modalities, and explore anything that might be relevant in the effort of self-development. I also think my family and I have benefited from an approach that seeks to contain and minimize the symptoms of our mental health challenges. But, what works for us, may not be appropriate for anyone else. You have to search until you find the right solutions for your situation.