In sanity and in health

Recently, Erin Veness wrote an article for HOT about her trip to Bexhill with Bex to have a semicolon tattoo, in response to Project Semicolon, an international campaign to raise awareness of mental health and mental well-being. HOT’s Zelly Restorick responds.

Reading about Project Semicolon, I most responded to this quote from the website: ‘A semicolon is used when an author could’ve chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you and the sentence is your life.’

More and more, I am reading and hearing about the huge numbers of individuals around the world, who are committing suicide in response to their life experiences: a self-determined full stop at the end of a life sentence. Death is somehow easier than living – and yet the process of actually ending one’s own life is by no means an easy, automatically peaceful one. One cannot go to the human equivalent of a veterinary surgeon and ask to be put out of one’s own misery.

Diagnostics

To some degree, everyone of us experiences ‘mental health issues’; they are not something only experienced by a certain group of individuals on the other side of the mental health fence. Since its first publication in 1952, the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders – the manual referred to by psychiatrists to aid the diagnosis process – has grown considerably over the years. I seriously believe that anyone could sit in front of a psychiatrist (including the psychiatrist) and be diagnosed with at least one ‘mental disorder’. Regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, etc: mental ill health doesn’t discriminate – it is a life experience anyone can encounter.

The Manual is created by psychiatrists and those working in the mental health field, including the pharmaceutical industry, who earn a very healthy living from selling drugs to help people with their diagnosis, regardless of whether the medication works or not. ‘Mental illness’ is not only a condition, but an industry; I remember reading years ago, in a Harvard Business School report, that ‘depression’ was growing and therefore would be a good sphere for profitable investment.

When one explores the questions: why is this happening to me? why am I like I am? one discovers a myriad of possible answers and few, if any, conclusions. Visit any medical professional – NHS, private, alternative – and invariably, they will offer a diagnostic answer and a solution and yet, in my opinion, the reality is that we still know very little.

People can be given any number of different diagnoses of their condition, depending on who is doing the assessing. All of us – not 1 in 4 (based only on those who register themselves or are registered by others within the system) – sit somewhere on the mental health spectrum or continuum – and our position can change during our lifetimes and during any 24 hour period.

Mind-body connection

Having experienced ‘mental health issues’ myself and worked within the mental health system – and being very aware of how many others have also had – or will have – this experience, then it’s good to raise awareness that mental dis-ease is as prevalent as physical dis-ease.

Our minds and bodies are not separate entities, although the current structure of our health service would suggest that they are. The mind and the body – the mental and the physical – are connected; entwined; intrinsically linked.

And we – as humans – are not vacuum-packed individuals; we are all connected at many levels of existence: cellular, atomic, particle, chemical, energetic, etc. – and we are affected by / interact with our environments and what is happening around us, as well as within us. It all has an effect. We are not operating or functioning in isolation.

‘Dis-ease’ can affect any of us. We can all feel low, a sense of anxiety and panic, be obsessive. In some cases in some situations, the balance can tip, but this depends on a number of factors: nature, nurture, our environment, the availability of trusted support, our ability to communicate, our inherent or learned resilience, up-to-date survival skills, the will to exist, the interpretation and assessment of those around us, our diet, our genetic pre-disposition, etc, etc.

Us and them

One man’s madness is another’s sanity. Put any of the world leaders, for example, in front of a psychiatrist with a copy of the DSM and how many do you think might be analysed as delusional? demonstrate psychopathic tendencies? be obsessive compulsive? How many might be immediately sectioned under the Mental Health Act?

I remember joining a local community gardening group, where a group of people from a mental health service wanted to be involved. Discussion ensued – and I heard responses from members about ‘axe murderers’, potential violence, fear of being left alone with ‘them’, what if there were children around, reliability, the need for vigilant supervision, trust issues. Mortifying, but also a gifted opportunity to change people’s perceptions. IF people with mental health issues – yet another label with stereotypical associations – have an urge to harm anyone, it is statistically well-known that it is far more likely to be themselves than someone else.

Within mental heath, there simply is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. Even the terms ‘service user’ and ‘service provider’ are misleading, as many of those working in the system have direct experience themselves, although they are often not allowed to say this out loud. And our current mental health system, although trying its very best, is overwhelmed, under-funded, under-staffed and is limited in what it can offer an individual.

Self-help, self-healing, mutual support, diet, exercise, regaining a sense of hope, building resilience, compassion, kindness, understanding, learning, etc are all vitally important to our wellbeing. An holistic approach, which doesn’t see body and mind / physical and mental as separate, but considers the whole human being in relation to other human and living beings and their environment and beyond – seems also to be an essential element.

At other times, in other cultures, life’s ups and downs were/are seen as part of the experience of existence, not as an illness that only a certain few will encounter. Maybe this shift in perspective would help us all on our life journeys?

Erin Veness HOT article here.

Project Semicolon here.

Zelly Restorick is a director of local Community Interest Company, SelfMotiv8

Also in: Health Matters

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