Mental Illness

[Artguy]

Hi all, I want to talk about something that is a very sensitive topic to many, myself included as i have been treated for depression most of my adult life. Here in Toronto we have an organization called the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). It is expanding exponentially, to even include out patient residences. They also have an enormous ad campaign going on.
Are we stressing ourselves out of existence with the demands of the information economy? Is the daily bombardment of media information enlightening us or killing us. Are we going through a new stage in the evolution of our species that will eliminate all those unfit to move forward productively? I work as a construction manager at an Art university and have been spear heading a new disability policy so the facilities can reflect the inclusion of all. Now I am beginning to think is mental health a valid disability, and if so how do we as a community accommodate the needs? I have recently looked into the standards of disability accommodation as set by the U.N. Then I distributed to a few people around the campus both abled and disabled to find even the U.N. standards to be woefully inadequate, and makes no accommodation for the mentally ill. Where do we go from here?????

[Arcadia]

job places can be mad places sometimes, very difficult to habitar if you want to keep being you.... (me included!) and yeah, I´ve also seen jobs deeply contributing to make people mentally ill... What can I say..., best wishes on your day-to-day work trying to make your place more open to dialogue, creativity, changes, solidarity and inclusion, artguy!!!!!!!! Have you seen the film "La question humaine"? I´ve seen it last weekend, your post somehow reminded me to it.

[still.trucking]

UN? This was a book mentioned in something I read about the UN and mental illness Have you ever read Les Damnés de la Terre,


I been certified since I got called up for the draft in 1962. It is a stigma.
That is all I can say to it kurt. Like walking wounded I guess,

"What we cannot reach flying, we must reach limping..."
http://www.jstor.org/pss/379031



"I have always been crazy, but it kept me from going insane." Waylon Jennings
I have tried to read the wretched of the earth several times, but it is so de

[mtmynd]

what if there is nothing wrong or bad with being depressed? what if that condition is simply part and parcel of living?

i've heard it said that in times passed whenever a family could not cope with their family member who was difficult to live with, they would ask the nearest buddhist/zen monastery for assistance. the monks would put the person in a shelter all to themselves and simply bring them food whenever the monks ate... leaving them to their own silence... supposedly benefited all involved.

there might be something to that. mental health may very well be a condition brought on by far too much activity which our minds cannot fully digest... leaving one with a ill-balance outlook, i.e. dis-ease. never a condition favorable to living a life of contentment.

contentment, i heard the dali lama say, was the opposite of greed. when we want too much.... so much to lure us away from our Self, often brings discontent with that which we don't have but are convinced we need... more often than not a futile journey that continues most of our lives.

[Doreen Peri]

Chemical imbalances exist and they can be hereditary, caused by stress or events that have happened to a person in his or her life, or many other factors.

There's a huge difference between being down for a while because your marriage broke up or you lost your job or your house got foreclosed on (meaning incidents that could happen to anybody just because life is like that) and being clinically depressed.

Clinical depression is debilitating but the good news is that it's a treatable disease. Luckily, these days we have available various pharmaceuticals to help restore the proper chemical balance. It's tricky, though, because there are so many of them and there are side effects, but it's dangerous not to get treated if a person is clinically depressed.

Depression like that can't be cured by sitting in a room and eating when the monks eat. (not to say anything negative about Cecil's post). Yes, I do believe stress is a major factor for those who experience depression as the chemical imbalance can worsen.

I have bouts with depression myself (it's hereditary in my family) but I try to stick to St. John's Wort and 5HTP as supplements plus exercise, pushing myself to MOVE physically as often as possible, eating healthy fresh foods, and drinking a LOT of water to get myself out of the depression. Most of the time this works however, sometimes it hasn't worked and further treatment has been necessary. I was clinically depressed, for instance, when my father was dying, and the anti-depressants helped me immensely to get through that time.

Kurt, I DO think that this age of too-much-information and lives that are lived too fast with people having too much on their plate for their minds to digest is definitely a huge factor in our mental stability. Human beings simply were not made to process so much information at once. Our circuits get overloaded.

I know when I'm multi-tasking and trying to accomplish more than is humanly possible for ME (all of our limits are different), that can feed into being down which if I let being down overwhelm me without doing something about it (like the list I made above), I can sink into terrible depressions, those which should probably be treated medically. So, yeah, I agree that slowing down can help... and sometimes I need to just STOP entirely....no computer, no TV, not answering the phone, do NOTHING... but breathe... then I can work myself back up to walking and swimming and MOVING around which can help the circuits run more smoothly so I feel better again.

There are many types of mental illness people experience, depression being just one of them, and each case needs to be looked at individually and treated properly. The different types of mental illnesses effect each individual differently, also, so that's why each case needs to be examined separately. We're all different than each other, including how our bodies react to medications and supplements.

If anyone reading this is struggling mentally to the point that it is debilitating and they aren't functioning properly to handle their lives, then it's time to seek medical help. There's no reason we have to suffer like that.

And Kurt, I'm sorry to hear you've had to deal with depression. It's not easy. I know. Believe me. And I respect you very much for starting this discussion and being so open about the topic.

[Artguy]

"You rearrange me til I'm sane..." Maybe I am OK from the outside looking in, but I can honestly say I am not OK from the inside looking out. I have found it very odd that in the last 2 years since I have been diagnosed with both chronic neuropathic pain and chronic fatigue syndrome, both having added to my clinical depression, that my work as an Artist seems so positive and optimistic. I will know in the very near future if I have graduated from depression to bipolar disorder type 2...I just keep on keeping on....

[judih]

Graduation
life, a series of changes with or without ceremony
your artwork commemorating your inner flow

[libramoon]

Depression like that can't be cured by sitting in a room and eating when the monks eat. (not to say anything negative about Cecil's post). Yes, I do believe stress is a major factor for those who experience depression as the chemical imbalance can worsen.

Actually, research with meditation suggests depression can much more successfullly (no nasty "side" effects either) be ameliorated with these kinds of mental exercises than with drugs or invasive "therapies". Yes, chemical imbalances are physical; they are physical manifestations of overwhelmed coping mechanisms.

[libramoon]

Storytellers

We need to make up stories
to be able to create realities.
That's what separates sapien
from beast.

Speak to the feast
or famine.
Sage, carnie, beggar
Come to the play!

There was a Roman soldier bored with war,
with whores, with bloody babies.
Hoping to escape, he wrote a history,
moved into
his Holy fantasy.
It's but a Shangri-La, a piper's dream.
Metal men, formed from clay,
scream upon fields of battle,
when nerves
catch up with senses.
Soothed with martial melodies,
gratefully serve.

Listen, oh little one.
The wind will catch you up as you sleep.
You won't remember when you wake, weeping,
how small, insignificant you are. Mommy assures,
you're her own little star. Demons alone explain
your terror. You determine
to do better. You soothe yourself with stories.
You spin a tale of love within a dance.
You spin yourself the center of romance,
a home, a fortress, an emptiness fulfilled.

Like a child counting fireflies,
alive in the darkened air,
dare to immerse with sparkling wonder,
to share
more beautiful stories.

June 29, 2010

[Artguy]

I sit in meditation and it all seems so clear and simple...then I come out here and see-feel all the antagonism and I am confused-lost and overwhelmed by it all.

[mtmynd]

artguy: "... then I come out here and see-feel all the antagonism and I am confused-lost and overwhelmed by it all."

the inner and the outer, the yin and the yang.... it's the law of dualities that's larger than all of us. accept it and be amused by the hand it deals us every single time.

[Artguy]

Thanks Cecil....this place is my sangha...and your words-thoughts are trusted deeply.

[mtmynd]

thank you for being here, amigo... you're good people.

btw: sorry to hear about your loss of a job... times are curious as Gaia continues to balance itself... and we must follow suit for our well being.

[Artguy]

I have always wanted to paint the effect this illness has had on my life, and the lives of all around me...I just can't seem to find it. It's just too all consuming, I don't want it to become an obsession in my work.