Lifestyle

Crazy For Feeling So Lonely

Crazy For Feeling So Lonely

During a recent conversation with a friend, the subject of mental health came up. Specifically, we discussed a condition she has been dealing with called bipolarism. She believed her mental health was somehow deficient, often feeling anxious and out-of-place in social situations because of her diagnosis. I started pondering bipolarism and other supposed mental “disorders.” How do these conditions fit into the human condition?

It’s hard for me to accept that a normal human being – whatever that is – should be fairly similar to others. If the study of nature has taught us anything it’s that life is varied. These varieties fall within a range or spectrum. Though we easily accept the spectrum of light, sound and so on, humankind has had a remarkably awkward time dealing with the spectrum of human states of being.

Throughout history, people have been chastised to various degrees if their mental condition fell outside the range of the socially accepted spectra of the time. Salem witch trials and the death of heretical scientists come to mind, and testify to this point. How many epileptics have been deemed possessed by demons? Hard to say.

What we do know is that mental states falling outside the range of social norms have begun to provide extremely useful data relating to the mind in general. The minds of autistic savants are being studied in an effort to understand what transpires in the minds of a genii.

Perhaps surprisingly, researchers have found a correlation between creativity and schizophrenia. By analyzing aberrations in thalamic regions of the brain in schizophrenics, and comparing that to the minds of healthy creative individuals, researchers where able to come to significant conclusions about creativity.

Personally, I believe what we presently call disorders will be common place in the future. Human beings aren’t becoming similar, but increasingly diverse. I told my friend to be proud of her mental state. I expect that anxiety about the condition is often worse than then condition itself. If you’ve been dealing with a mental diagnosis, consider this: What science tells you today will be redacted tomorrow.

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