Just a quick reflection on Jennifer and nocapszy's posts.
I believe most are in accord that a brain which is focussed on self-destruction is one which isn't functioning correctly.
Hear that Jen? We're fucked up, you and I.
Oh wait... I knew that already.
Mental illness is tremendously widespread.
Or practically non-existent.
One in four Americans will experience it at some point in their lives.
This is why I think it's not real. If that were true, then there ought to be more psych wards than 7 Elevens. I seriously think that if mental illness can legitimately be called an illness, that this figure is profusely exaggerated.
The public has this polished ideal representation of how we oughtta be. And of course there's deviation, but none of it is really very adventurous. So we've decreased the bar -- made it easier to be called adventurous than actually adventure, because the individual psychology in all its egotistically driven consumption* will more comfortably feed on the words -- phony conveyance of admiration -- than on the experience.
It's 'cool' to be adventurous. If you're given the dub, you feel good about yourself. That's why people pretend they like foreign food, why gaydom has increased, and why these 'adventurous' types have usually never gone rock climbing (symbolic for adventurousness... don't take this too literally): It's a big circle-jerk.
If you're not in the circle already though, don't expect to get in though. They shove everyone who isn't as polished out. Any
true adventurousness is laughed at.
Jackass the movie is proof of this. Sure, people think it's funny, but they're getting a kick out of knowing they're not quite as "stupid" as those fellas. I know so, because I went and saw the movie with some of my polished friends. After the movie they mocked the whole cast. The jackass crew served to remind them just how polished they were.
Real deviation is dangerous. And it makes those polished people very very uncomfortable. To be fair, if it didn't, they wouldn't try to polish themselves.
Mental illness counts as real deviation. At least to the public: The public thinks that insanity is deliberate. It genuinely appears to be at first glance, which is all the closer an examination anyone from conventional public makes effort to take.
Having such poor, and limited information makes it hard to differentiate between physical malfunction, and deliberate deviance.
I also blame a lot of the deviants for this muddling -- many of them imitate the crazies.
Mental illness is a joke, except where it's not deliberate. Where there's unnatural chemical proportions. That can't be helped.
I have a
very hard time accepting that one in four people will have a substantially imbalanced neural chemical make-up.
** we're all egotistical... all of us. every human. without getting into evolution too much, it helps maintain survival, but in modern culture, necessity for it is far less, but still a prevalent drive
Usually it takes the form of depression. And as someone else here mentions, why not?
Look at the state of things. Any thinking and feeling person certainly is justified in feeling discouraged.
Or invincible, which is probably closer to where I stand.
Consciously I know I'm not but thinking about some of the things I do makes me wonder if I do think I can't fuck up. Either that or that I just don't care if I do fuck up, but as much effort as I put in, I couldn't not care.
And here's something many don't know. That if you stay in a depressed state long enough your brain chemistry can alter to the point when your brain will not manufacture its own feel-good chemicals any more.
This be where my uncle stands.
So to assume that a person is making an informed decision about offing themselves is erroneous.
Which is why I've made no attempt to explain to him that his brain is actually physically malfunctioning, and he needs to make reparations, just like he would to a car which wasn't working properly.
They are ill and they need help to get well. If they are able to accomplish that with help their brain will function at a level normal enough to not want to die.
The amount of time money and effort it takes is daunting and it is sometimes easier for everyone involved to just chuck it. Darwin, ya know. Let 'em go.
And mentally disturbed people can be such a pain in the butt that sometimes people do get to that point of not trying to help anymore.
But then - that thought about hiding one's sucidal tendencies? That part of the problem. Our society places such a hard judgement on mental illness that people are afraid to seek help.
Odd thing. We don't judge people with cancer. We feel compassion for them.
Maybe it's because of the behavioral problems that mentally ill people exhibit?
Maybe, but that still doesn't mean the public at large is making any calculated estimate on whether it's good or bad. Just following 'what's done'
Cancer patients ritually use drugs. That's usually regarded as a flaw when the depressed do it, but it's OK if you've got cancer.
They're also forced into immense pain, which causes rotten/rude/mean behavior. This is of course forgiven once the cancer comes to mind, and is replaced with the compassion you mentioned. You can't physically see depression, so you can't concretely diagnose it, so you can't prove you have it, so people are less inclined to feel the same compassion when you act out of pained reflex the same way a cancer patient does.
Also:
Smoking causes cancer. Their decision. They decided, even if inadvertently, to get cancer. We still feel compassion.
Some people can't help depression. They're just built 'poorly'
My pop thinks I'm depressed. He's an idiot.
He tells me, in different words, basically, to stop being depressed.
Simple as that. Usually he phrases it like "you need to get on the stick" or some other such ESTJ bullshit slogan.
No compassion for the depressed. Or at least it's a different kind of compassion. Possibly because cancer isn't contagious, but depression is.
But they're out there in huge numbers. Functioning just like everybody else and under considerable handicap.
