May – Mental Health Awareness Month

Posted on by Reena Saxena

Observing mental health issues brings a different kind of awareness to me.

Is it only about chemical reactions in the brain? It seems to me that it is more about boundary lines – boundaries we grew up in, boundaries in which our thought processes were dumped in and locked up.

Someone decides to transgress the boundaries, and it does not go well with the ecosystem.

For someone else, boundary lines of time, logic and facts get mixed up. Our dreams are made up of fractions of the subconscious put together in different ways. I guess something similar happens in this kind of illness (where the patient does not accept s/he is ill).

A face from the past floats by – someone who did something that hurt you. Then it gets all blurred. There are other voices and expressions that hurt us in a somewhat similar manner, or so we imagine. We transpose one face on another, mix up statements and voices, re-imagine old scenarios in new settings and construct stories which are – well, completely insane.

Translating those thoughts into action, imposing weird conditions on others, making ludicrous allegations which highlight their fears and a consistent refusal to connect with what others call the real world is what we often call madness.

There are those who disconnect from their environment completely. Some need to be incarcerated if they threaten normal existence of others.

I see a common thread floating through it all – getting confused with boundary lines. What is acceptable, and what’s not? Something is very real to one, and absurd to the rest of the world.

Insanity and sanity exist on different mental planes. Treatment for mental health issues hovers around bringing them back to a mental state which matches the ecosystem.

Something is Happening at MLMM. Check out what Jim Adams has to say to Friday Faithfuls.

8 thoughts on “May – Mental Health Awareness Month”

  2. Reena, I agree with your awareness. I am in the process of sifting through the wreckage of a state that was imposed on me by family, doctors, society, circumstances. I was diagnosed (officially) with major depressive disorder, substance use disorder, anorexia, bulimia, unspecified anxiety disorder, and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. I have also been “labeled” as having borderline personality “traits”, and I have observed myself over the last couple decades to have tendencies or symptoms that lean towards an obsessive compulsive disorder diagnosis. I was treated with anti-depressant medications beginning when I was a child (around age 10ish), and I have been in counseling since I was in my teens. While diagnoses can be helpful, along with therapy (counseling and others), I believe it is not so much about diagnoses and pills as it is about people and perception. I have been involved in equine assisted psychotherapy now for about two years. I meet biweekly with my counselor and we hang out with horses, talk about whatever I need to, and work on personal goals I discover along the way. You use the word boundaries—this is the biggest thing I have discovered and continue to work on. My entire existence of boundaries was violated and skewed at an extremely young age (when I was secretly sexually abused by my father when I was a couple years old and couldn’t verbalize effectively), and went untreated for decades because it was not understood. Not by me, and definitely not by anyone outside myself. I have fought to exist and along the way decided I didn’t want to exist, then I decided I wanted to thrive. I think that is an integral part of alleviating mental health issues, acknowledging, understanding, and working through the trauma and violation of boundaries (whether that be never having learned them, being taught the wrong ones, etc.). It has been a fight. It is a lot of work for me to function some days, and it is (I think) easier for people around me to not want to come alongside me and understand and help me understand. I see you as becoming one of those people, for saying “it is more about boundary lines – boundaries we grew up in, boundaries in which our thought processes were dumped in and locked up”. I think 99% of the world has some kind of “boundary” mental illness. It is not only about chemical imbalances in the brain, however there are individuals who truly do have chemical imbalances in the brain (which I suspect have passed down through generations, originally defense mechanisms that developed long before people understood them, and have now become the insanities); and these people need our love and understanding. In my case, and the cases of many others, awareness, acknowledgment, understanding, and tolerance are keys. Instead of stigmatizing others or labeling them as different or treating them as such or behaving in manners that demonize them or are hurtful, helping them to understand what is at the core of the illness and learn new ways to live their lives—well, this is beneficial. I have been on over ten different psychiatric medications throughout my life. Sometimes I feel incredibly silly that I am 36 years old and “only” now “figuring things out” (getting to the core and learning new ways to live), but I am gentle with myself for I understand that these issues are not only not my fault, but I fought and looked for ways to break through them anyway. We can succumb to our mental unrest (which is honestly probably easier on society to deal with, throw us away instead of try to understand why we sometimes behave as we do) or we can ask how we can live around it, and I pray eventually learn to live above it. Mine is one of many, man my stories. There are too many different details to address, but if we address the core (which your other post for dVerse did delightfully), which is loving others and coexisting peacefully, I believe there are stupendous advancements that can be made. I hope to be able to help others like myself in the future. I didn’t intend for this longwinded response. It is something I live and deal with on a daily basis, and it helps when I see there are people intentionally considering what mental illness “is”. This is necessary if we, as a society, will ever truly “help”. So thank you for that. You are a blessing.❤️🙏🏼❤️

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    2. Hi, Melissa

      I don’t have words to thank you enough for sharing parts of your life. I am enlightened, and I’m sure it will help many others.

      You could put this up as an independent post.

      I hope you keep blossoming as you grow older, and manage to eliminate the influence of toxic roots.

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