Mental Illness Diagnosis Is An Arbritrary System, 'the Gene Myth' And The True Cure

[AlwaysBeNice]

The main reason for this post is because there is a lot of hysteria/misconceptions about mental illness, especially once people start to get into spirituality and psychedelics some people may sometimes be afraid they will one day 'trigger something that breaks their functioning mind, free will, emotions caused soly by some genetic predisposition'. Luckily that's a bunch of bullshit, though triggers and collapses may occur, the real cause is simply trauma, which can be dealt with.

No developed mental illness (which is what we will be talking about) has ever been diagnosed through a biological test, it's a mere opinion based on symptoms (whom vary a lot, and of which not all are negative or even unhealthy), which creates a very very vague field:

For instance, 10 people may have a cough, yet they may all have different diseases, but because the diagnosis is based on the symptom, they are all labeled with the same illness. (not to mention, a biological correlation also does not imply a cause, i.e. (mental) stress may still be the underlying cause)

And other example, schizophrenia is based on just 2 out of 5 symptoms for a diagnosis: 

'The positive symptoms of schizophrenia (delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech) can look like a manic episode of bipolar disorder, while the negative symptoms of schizophrenia (apathy, social withdrawal, and low energy) can look like a depressive episode.'

Did you experience something unusual or belief in some unusual things? Do you hear voices sometimes, or see something not seen by others sometimes, either positive or negative? etc.

Well, even having just a few of these things may already end you up diagnosed. Does that mean something is wrong with your body/mind per se? No, it means this particular culture created an arbitrary system to label the strange. 

However most people diagnosed mentally disturbed, are most often damaged broken individuals. 

Often schizophrenics and other mentally ill come from a unhealthy upbringing, were taught no confidence or love, in worse cases were (severely) abused by the parents or environment, didn't fit in socially and that has caused an unbalanced mind with all sorts of negative beliefs, low self worth and no tools to deal with it.

In my own experience, I have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, yet recovered from all symptoms remarkably fast. Long personal story:

My youth: I had rather emotionally weak/insecure parents, spend almost all my free time behind TV and later video games, I was bullied, my dad died at 15 and at the same time, around age 15/16 I did recover socially (thanks to new friends and weed at the time (weed actually opened my eyes as to realizing I wasn't the only insecure being on the planet, but that it was in fact rampant).

However not much later I started getting into mushrooms somewhat frequently and after some intense trips I realized we are spiritual being who could be living a ecstatic life if we decided to live in oneness without fear (among a few other things), but because I had no further tools or guidance and I was still walking around with a lot of emotional trauma/self-repression, and lacked the courage to be my true self, my negative ego flourished; I had no motivation for the regular world anymore, stayed in my room all day/night, I didn't know how to let go of all my fear and emotional trauma, and I wanted to die. But since that was not an easy or seemingly smart thing to do, I tried the next seemingly best thing, trying to imagine a better world for myself, I wanted to belief I was more special than others because I felt so inadequate. and I wanted to belief the moment was more special because I felt so shitty; this resulted in delusions and even in some rather small but (partly) self induced hallucinations (belief is a powerful tool) (though not of all can be said to be definitive hallucinations). 

After about a year of that me and my mom both thought it was a good idea to hospitalize for depression and psychosis (though in my eyes at the time, I believe I was just depressed, given I simply lived very unconsciously). I was hospitalized for psychosis, I hoped to receive good therapy, I imagined someone who would just talk to me so I could cry it all out. Strangely enough, despite living a developed first world country (The Netherlands), none of that happened, I was asked to simply take medications and was pretty much put away with similar (but nice) individuals with a short group therapy once a week, despite that, nothing really happened except a few. very short, talks with a (apathetic) psychiatrist. A wonderful business model to keep people taking drugs for their whole lives and not actually look at their problems indeed, luckily I refused all medication and they didn't pat attention. I was diagnosed with a schizoaffective disorder (schizophrenia with emotional imbalance) at the end of my year long hospitalization, overall, it was an OK time to simply get to myself more somewhat with no responsibilities, though that did not really help that much at all, luckily, I later did find the cure.

Getting rid of mental illness

At the end of my hospitalization of about a year I started meditating and things got better quickly, I just went home, got back to school, continued my practice and also started practicing self-inquiry, quickly in about a year time all my delusions/hallucinations as well as the dreadful depression simply faded. I went from very mentally restless to less and less until I was more neutral, until the neutrality birthed a small joy. During that time and time after until this day, emotional trauma surfaced (regularly) and is released, making me less afraid, less tense and free-er. 

Years later the progress has simply continued and I'm a happy, peaceful person and productive person, still there is some healing to do and there is a long infinite way to further to live and progress into total harmony, oneness and bliss with God,- thank God. And with no mental or emotional disturbance that ever surfaced again, even after taking psychedelics again numerous times, In fact living more in harmony with your inner-self makes you become actually one of the more sane people, and living in sync with life which gets wonderfully and clearly reflected with consistent synchronicities and a more conscious communication with the divine/yourself (through synchronicity, feeling, inspiration), despite how delusional that might sound to the common man.

And now, in hindsight, I can look back at a dreadful depression and delusional moments with some gratitude, as it provided me a great useful contrast to more fully know who I really am and what actual happiness is.  

The gene myth

As you may already have figured, trauma/negative imprints and the fear is what causes an imbalance in thought and behavior. Gene's do play (a rather small) role, as well as your environment, though ultimately it's the mind that decides what it beliefs in and how it wants to function in relation to it's beliefs.

So no. Schizophrenia or any other developed mental illness does not get suddenly triggered caused by some gene; the concordance rate between identical twins and schizo. is around 25% and the concordance rate between fraternal twins is about 5%.

This shows that people with exactly the same gene's have a 25% chance of getting schizo. together, not a 100%. Although the number is higher than of the fraternal twins, this may be caused be cause they are more susceptible to receiving emotional imprints, perhaps psychic functioning or because they were simply raised more similarly and gotten into the same circumstances and mental health system. 

So in short: gene's do not cause any developed mental illness. Well explained by some of the best professors in the world here as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36HquPzdxf4

 It's caused by trauma

Because of my own experiences I strongly belief that all disturbances simply come from being raised in an impure, dishonest, negative and simply insane world (which in truth is anything that does not display oneness), which we soak in as children which may or may not make us then extremely insane, or simply just a bit more so than the rest. 

This is not my view alone, I came to found out, there are quite a few (renowned) psychiatrists who see it this way as well, to name a few good psychiatrists and researched: Charles Whitfield (very good), Colin Ross, John Breeding, Ben Sessa and the list is not complete. 

-

so TL:DR Don't be afraid of developing any mental illness, it can only come from too much emotional/mental baggage fundamentally which you can simply heal through (and probably mainly through) spirituality/meditation/self-inquiry and other modalities (expressing yourself, openly talking, music etc.). - (One of the most useful things I found is to conjure up fear through your imagination, to then feel in the body to then meditate on it.)

Peace <3

 

[Capethaz]

Can you describe your symptons?

[AlwaysBeNice]

Yeah. Aside from a deep long depression, delusions first came after an awakening experience of suddenly seeing a lot more, my vision just expanded, which happened a few days after an already intense mushroom trip. This made the 16 year old insecure me feeling like I might be better than others, that I might be the chosen one, which eventually led into fear, where I thought that just rather random things meant serious stuff. Wanting to belief I was enlightened.

Deep down I would I knew these things to be untrue, but when you are so caught up in your ego, carrying around a lot of fear, you go tend to (want to go) with it. 

[Andrea Marchetti]

I was just willing to write a new topic about some problems I think I might have and that I would need some clarity about... And I found this topic.
I would like anyway to receive some different views on this...

I have been smoking marijuana for few years now, the last two years or so I smoked rarely. And now it's quite a long time, but I always have my weed in case I want to smoke. The reason I smoke is that when I do I feel very panicky and after a while, more the panic has been intense and more I could see better myself and others, and these insights cause my ego to inflate. Since I was younger, 18 years old, my ego was still developing and now, because of this, my ego has taken a very different path. I am afraid I might be grown up not properly. Since what actually happens when I panic on weed and inflate is that my ego weakens and then grows on a different way. I am afraid I might have gone off the rails.

Now, I am a bit worried about the consequences of this, since lately after an LSD trip things get kind of worst and I feel I am not in control of myself and I am often afraid to be mad, after that psychotic episode I feel more unstable. Maybe these problems have always been there but now they are stronger and often I cannot subconsciously choose to be unaware and distract myself. I am also completely socially inefficient: before I had friends and after the weed use I have no friends, I have a girlfriend but we never understand each other even if we often try our best but we deeply both know it's not enough, I stay with her because I am afraid of being left completely alone, I don't know why she stays with me, probably it's a habit and it's hard to be intimate again with someone else from the beginning. I haven't a job, and this one doesn't really bother me even if family and girlfriend and friends (when I sometimes see them) say it is, but to me it's just financially unstable so I help my parents as a farmer. Yet I want to express myself, but all I can think of is to say to other people what I think or see about human existence and when I do I go around like a pleased cockerel, and a thought says: Such an idiot. And another: it's a good thing to help others. And other: you know it's bullshit, you are doing it for your pleasure.... These are not voices I feel external, I feel I think them, yet... I have been depressed for few years, now I may be often depressed but before it was more stable...  And all this would never been the same without weed and LSD (which I used just once because I am afraid to go mad). So I am wondering whether I should give up on this shit of enlightenment and come back to build my ego as normal, which it can never be again, within society and in a sense come back... Since the only external feedback I have for my ego are books some people then I may be quite out of touch with reality. But also other ordinary people are out of reality I think, so from which stable reality can I have feedbacks? My mind is continually contradicting itself and my ego is wanting stuff that it, by its nature, can't get. 

In essence, I think that using drugs may open views which are too early and it could bring instability, this in addition to isolation are the perfect recipe to get mad. I also think that without instability one cannot evolve.
The reason why I go on with drugs (rarely now) is because they inflate my ego and a 10% because they helped me in some things. I can't understand if I am going in healthy direction or the other way. I have many unhealthy stuff in my head, not extreme relatively to some other people (yet?), but I can't understand whether they are driving me or I am kind of out from them. I think that, for example, if my girlfriend leaves I may be really depressed and unstable this time. Maybe these are just suppositions driven by fear, I don't know. I know I have desires I deny to myself for various reasons. I am just afraid to go mad, that's all. And if I think about it now that I am exorcising this, a far thought is asking Who is going mad? But since I, as ego, know that it's a thought to follow my fear stops me, of course... Another thought asks Does it matter? Fuck my life. Another says: Life is important. Another follows: How do you know it? Another replies: I don't and can't know. And there it stops, but the feeling remains.
What in essence I am trying to do is to jump, grab the power that comes with truth, and taking it back with me to the ground where I can be safe. In a nutshell since I, as ego, know what makes me afraid of 'dying' so I repel it. This repulsion is what I think is, in depth, going to drive me mad. I know where truth is and I escape it, yet I desire it from both personal will and emotional needs. But when I get near my personal will ignore it and I step back and my emotional needs remains unsatisfied. And this would never happened without drugs use. It is not something I would normally be able to see and so I might not be able to integrate it, since I am isolated and afraid of being alone and many other stuff too... I don't know. I feel like with drugs I have seen too far from where I was and am. A way too far to integrate properly, maybe. I want new sex and recognition but these are never satisfied. I feel so split in many me. I am envious of normal people, I call them normal people because they function better than me and yet I often find myself to feel superior to their shitty lives. In essence, fear is driving me mad and I am a coward on so many different and contradictory levels that to be courageous in one you have to be fearful in the other. And yet I think everything I say is, indeed, bullshits.
What do you think?

Since this post has became in the end (it has probably always been) a little escape for me, a kind of exorcism, I am gonna follow this and share a nice in-tune song. And sorry for egoism, but I do it in such a way that's gonna maybe be useful... 

 

Edited October 1, 2016 by Andrea Marchetti

[AlwaysBeNice]

I can only advice you to simply stay away from the drama you create, and most importantly practice meditation, mindfulness and self-inquiry a lot. 

Aside from that, just live in the moment, see what life brings, no need to be afraid of anything, do what you need to do to support yourself and aside from that develop your expressive abilities and maybe make a living with that one day, or until an UBI is here. 

[Capethaz]

@AlwaysBeNice do you think that psychedelics are good for healing trauma? 

[AlwaysBeNice]

I don't have too much experience but ayahuasca is suppose to be really fantastic for it, the others seem to have potential as well. While not common on mushrooms per se I belief, I think if you just have it as your intention and ask it,  I'm fairly confident it will deliver. It's something to do on my agenda soon so I'll report back.

Also people report releasing a lot of negativity after their 5-MeO breakthrough. Ibogaine works as well I think.

I found very weed to be helpful in discovering how much fear there is actually still stored in my body. 

Also there is a bit of a fad nowadays with taking high doses of raw cacao (not cacoa) which supposedly helps open the heart.

Never the less, still of course it's possible to all do it yourself simply by directing your awareness within, but I would recommend plants as well.