Mental Illness

With the suicide of Robin Williams everyone is talking about the seriousness of Mental Illness and how devastating it can be. Depression hurts in more than one way and sometimes the person pays the ultimate price. From the psychological and psychiatric perspective, a mental disorder is an illness with psychological or behavioral manifestations associated with impaired functioning. It can be due to biological, social, psychological, genetic, physical or chemical disturbance. It is measured in terms of deviation from some normative concept. Each illness has characteristic signs and symptoms. From a Shamanic perspective, mental illness is caused from mal-adaptive patterns of pain that impact a person's meaning and purpose in life to the point of causing their emotions and inner dialogue to erupt. This causes an interruption in how a person perceives reality. The person then creates an adapted reality in order to cope. My question is, who decides what is normal? Everyone responds to pain differently. Also, we can't continue to only treat the symptoms. A pill may lessen the anxiety but it will not heal the underlying pain. This is the major cause of relapse for many. When you are well you will take the medication but when stressed you won't in which case you will once again slip into your own private hell. With Shamanism we help people find the heart of the matter and heal the pain that is causing the mal-adaptive patterns. It is a healing process that allows the person control over what they think and feel and gives them valuable tools to counteract their reaction to pain triggers. Awareness is crucial! This healing process however requires determination, and commitment, and in this day and age of immediate gratification feels like too much work for some. I don't know how often I hear someone say, "I don't have money for that." (healing). Then they buy cup after cup of coffee... shop for things they don't need or buy illicit drugs to dull the pain. When will people learn to prioritize their health? Although Shamanism affords most people a much faster healing path there is still time and effort involved. There is no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to mental health...