The Philosophy Of Mental Illness

~ Gottfried

We’re all mostly insane. I visited a family once and I must say that even though insanity didn’t run in that family, I’m convinced it strolled through, taking time to get to know each of them personally. I should have known. The first warning sign was that they all talked at the top of their voice. This one time the dad was speaking to me, and I had to remind him, in the most respectful manner, that I was only just five feet away, and that I could hear him clearly. He paused for a bit and increased the volume. Crase

What is Mental illness? Mental illness in it’s purest form is shaving off your entire eyebrows, only to draw them back on with a pencil. It doesn’t get more accurate than that. A close second will be shaving your entire hair and then proceeding to prance around in a wig. While we’re on the subject of dressing, if you live in the tropics, and I catch you on a hot Sunday afternoon in a three-piece suit, I’m 100% calling the cops on your arse. Since you don’t know how to act.

If you get offended by being called fat. Fat people have come up with so many fancy excuses for their condition. “I’m not fat, I’m chubby”. You’re right, you’re actually obese. “Don’t call me fat, I have weight and I know how to carry it”. The funniest one I’ve heard in a while is, “I’m not fat, I’m big-boned.” I’ll have you know that the Blue whale has the largest bone in the animal kingdom ever discovered. So rather than say you’re fat, can I just call you ‘whale’ instead?. Wait, why are you picking up a stone?

Beating up kids. Now I can empathize with a school sending the kids home for owing school fees, but what exactly does beating them beforehand do to help? I mean it’s bad enough my dad is poor and can’t pay my fees, in addition, you’re punishing me for the sins of my father. Will it hasten the payment? The same applies to parents. So your kid isn’t doing great at school and your reaction is to deprive them of any fun? What happens when despite this, their grades don’t improve? You go ahead to suck the life out of the poor kid? You’re ill!

Anxiety is the devil. The human body is 80% water, so we’re basically just cucumbers with anxiety. Every time you say to yourself, “What could possibly go wrong?” and Anxiety is gonna be like, “I’m glad you asked”. Anxiety really just stops your life. It’s funny that there are so many people who are former executives and have taken all that stress and anxiety and transferred it to their kids.  How to deal with anxiety? You don’t, it deals with you.

Mental illness is real. It occurred to me that many people are actually afraid to heal because their entire identity is centered around the trauma they’ve experienced. They have no idea who they are outside the trauma and that unknown can be terrifying. It’s worse when people try to argue about what you’re experiencing. So the next time someone tells you that mental illness is all in your head tell them; “Well duh, where else is it going to be, my kidneys?”

I’d like to conclude by saying that there are actual people with these mental disorders, who still somehow, despite their clear and obvious limitations, find a way to be decent human beings. Then there’s you, who thinks being called bipolar is some sort of compliment. You hide under the umbrella of being bipolar to mask the fact that you’re indeed a poor excuse for a human being. If I catch you giving someone a hard time, you gonna catch a fade.

and it won’t be from a barbershop.

© Gottfried. All rights reserved

596 thoughts on “The Philosophy Of Mental Illness”

  2. NIiiiiice! I have one word…

    Brainspotting. Do it. Do it, and cease to be subject to your traumas ever again. Then, you have trained them how to treat you. They aren’t allowed by you,Sovereign in Self, to hijack you mouth. THe best they can do is present themselves to be heard, present wise counsel from their trauma body of experience. And, trauma’s always fresh, and that’s why it gets the best of people. They’re exhausted, and more than capitulating, many actually expect that it has to get worse. Nope. There have simply been more worse things than better, so by proportionate default that’s your brain’s go-to default. Inspect your expectations. In fact, check them at the door and see the workability in “Don’t waste trouble.” NO reverse gear. No shaming. No responsibility even. Just, “Ok, that happened. What are we/you/I going to do about it. Workability is the non-toxic drip that over time will wear a hole in the rock of expected negativity.

    Of course, above, I said nothing about losing a sense of discernment. Sometimes, future problems are best solved by the vanity of ego as a positive feature called radar that says, “DUCK. You look better with a head than not.” No mistakes. All OFLs. Opportunities For Learning.

    Ok, all that said. WOO HOO Gottfried! I love hilariousness in Wisdom and perspective. You’ve got it in spades. Thank you for yet another YES post.

    Liked by 23 people

    Reply

    1. I do agree with you. Yes, it’s happened, the logical approach should be “what are you going to do about it?”

      Unfortunately, for most people, logic is usually thrown out of the window in the face of adversity.

      Being able to spot problems a mile off is indeed a rare gift.

      Glad you enjoyed the post.

      Liked by 8 people

      Reply

      1. I’m with you, and Both/And as well I differ in that from my perspective it is not logic that solves problems. It is the powerful, whole-body listening without any compulsion to speak, full-on SIlence, that opens one to the experience of whatever is right in front of us. Rather than logic, simply listening. And, sometimes in the listening the person solves resolves it out on their own and all you do is cock your head and smile as they wash up on their own shore freed a bit from their inner captor after the storm has broken. Makes one who listens a lighthouse so to speak?

        And, the spotting problems a mile off is both a rare gift and also rare within that gift. I’ve had my share of downshifting and running up the tach to sidestep the clutch and rocket straight through a chicane… only to OOPS, right into the wall. NO mistakes. OFLs. Opportunities For Learning so long as my Inner Roll Cage held. 🙂

        I did enjoy the post. You intensely shakes of the shackles in your words that are beautifully irreverent on one hand and full-boat sacred with their wit towards the experience on the other…so, I’ll take the other. 🙂

        Liked by 11 people

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        1. Listening is indeed a powerful tool. Well have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.

          I think I have a knack for identifying problems at the roots.

          Haha, glad you did

          Liked by 7 people

          Reply

          1. Yup, like gardening. That’s how to do it. At the roots. You can cut weeds with scissors and behaviorally have some sense of relief, albeit temporarily. Or, dig a bit, loosen, and pull-slide root completely out… and smooth back and amend the Soil with good stuff.

            Liked by 7 people

          3. Yes, I agree. I became a full-time gardener in my back yard through the 3 years I was creating the initial Mystereum Tarot 2005-2008, and then through to when the perennial of the Mystereum Tarot naturalized and became “Tarot in the Land of Mystereum” published by Schiffer in 2011. DIgging in the dirt is better than diggin‘ in oneself. We are each sacred ground that is better left undisturbed, though when digging in the dirt, the Self pours Inner shit out into the soil like manure to fertilize it. You connect with Nature in teh garden, and as you do you more and more connect with your own Inner Nature and just who you are through and through. It may not be every gardener’s experience, though through 2005-2011 I discovered, by creating it with my own two hands, a Soul Garden, me as my own Soul Gardener. The immersion and ablution that began to flow from that effin builds value.

            “Most people who garden are at peace with their reality.” I full-on agree and resonate intensely with that. Excellent way to pen/open it, Gottfried.

            Liked by 7 people

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