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MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

kennethreitz.org

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Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#111

Post by jdietrich »

tominous wrote: post #30

This story struck a nerve because (in hindsight) I saw the same thing happening to my brother when he was about 19. He was suddenly interested in astrology, reiki, "tachyon energy disks", epiphanies, angels and demons, the vibrations of the universe. At the time I thought it was a phase. My mother was always talking (tongue-in-cheek?) about her "parking angel" and burning incense, so I thought he had just picked up t…

>It really put me off religion and spirituality for a very long time. If these concepts weren't out there and accepted by so many people, maybe he would have been diagnosed and treated sooner and be in a better place today. I don't know.

I'm a staunch skeptic, but I don't think there's a causal link. People suffering from psychosis invariably find something in their environment to create a contextual frame for their experiences.

For example, paranoia can manifest itself as a wide range of experiences. Someone living in rural Nigeria might describe being possessed by evil spirits, someone living in 1950s America might describe being followed by KGB agents, a European Muslim in the present day might describe being targeted by spy satellites and drones. After the release of the movie The Truman Show, psychiatrists saw a sudden emergence of patients who believed they were living in a reality TV show.

https://aeon.co/essays/a-culture-of-hyper-reality-made-paran... http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/16/unreality-star http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/july/voices-culture-luhrm... http://www.psychosocial.com/IJPR_10/Cultural_Demographic_Fac... http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/193/2/168

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#112

Post by kenneth_reitz »

davycro wrote: post #95
kenneth_reitz wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! It is the inevitable truth you are being constantly presented with. You are forced to accept it.

I love this, well said I knew a bipolar patient who believed he was a shaman. In his last manic episode he was found wandering outside naked in minus twenty temperatures. He said he had transcended to a higher consciousness where the cold no longer affected him. I interviewed him a few months later to see if he was taking his medicine. He was, but said he didn't like the medicines because they took away his special p…

Hah! I did exactly this, but far less extreme. I would walk barefoot on the street, where the sun had been painfully heating the pavement, and adjusting my psyche so I could not feel the pain.

According to the books, an excellent meditative practice.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#113

Post by quotemstr »

nibs wrote: post #94

I am saddened that after reading stories like this one, people remain skeptical of fortifying water with Lithium. A study from the 90s [1] found that rates of violent crime and suicide was much lower in Texas counties with naturally occuring Lithium in their water, as opposed to demographically identical ones with less. Lithium is an element that is implicated in Bipolar Disorder and appears to affect critical brain…

I upvoted your post not because I agree with it --- I think lithum in particular is a terrible idea and will reduce human potential --- but because large-scale societal engineering efforts in general are interesting, and we're too reluctant to even entertain the idea of using them due to the concomitant "ick factor" involved.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#114

Post by kruhft »

tominous wrote: post #30

This story struck a nerve because (in hindsight) I saw the same thing happening to my brother when he was about 19. He was suddenly interested in astrology, reiki, "tachyon energy disks", epiphanies, angels and demons, the vibrations of the universe. At the time I thought it was a phase. My mother was always talking (tongue-in-cheek?) about her "parking angel" and burning incense, so I thought he had just picked up t…

This is an interesting read on the difference of views between the Western and African views of 'mental illness' from an African (Witch) Doctor after visiting some western mental hospitals:

    http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/08/22/shaman-sees-mental-hospital/
tl;dr: Most of what we view as mental illness they view as the birth or awakening of a 'healer' and should be treated that way for proper acceptance of the person into society and eventual recoverey.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#115

Post by josscrowcroft »

This brings to mind something I read by Ken Wilbur, about "Waking Up" vs. "Growing Up".

In a nutshell, as I understand it: Waking Up without Growing Up - like spiritual bypass - can lead to delusion, psychosis, inflicting unconscious wounds on ourselves and the world... Advancement in Waking Up, which I suppose we need for ultimate fulfilment, doesn't by itself cause progress in Growing Up, which we need to function as part of our world...

I've seen friends who started earnestly seeking spirituality around the same time as me go deep into madness (with spiritual names), for example dealing with 'entities' they claim to be real, yet are not part of shared reality, and I suppose failing to see that their experience is actually mirroring their inner state.

My own brief touches with psychosis triggered by intense - and arguably premature - spiritual work have emphasised for me the importance of remaining grounded in the daily life of being human, doing that basic work first to become emotionally literate, calm, healthy and self-nurturing.

What concerns me is that people throw the baby out with the bathwater when they stifle or medicate their spiritual longings due to fear of (or experience with) mental illness. Mental health seems like it could be a prerequisite for facing the challenges of sincere growth, but not a reason to avoid spirituality.

I believe Ram Dass said "You gotta be somebody before you can be nobody."

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#116

Post by xyzzy4 »

teamhappy wrote: post #105
xyzzy4 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had psychosis several years ago and I was pretty good at hiding it until the point where I became hospitalized. The trick is you have to be acutely aware of whether you are sounding crazy to others, and how you're being perceived. You can think as many crazy thoughts as you want, as long as you don't express them.

I don't know much about psychosis other than what I've told you. I saw a therapist some time ago about anxiety/stress and that kind of thing and I mentioned that I've googled the hell out of it already (bad idea!) and a long list of really scary stuff came up (including psychosis). So I've mentioned that stuff starting the list with psychosis and he laughed and said he would have figured that out by now (and explaine…

> BTW: You mention you were aware that your thoughts would seem crazy to others. Were you also aware that they are crazy (or did they seem perfectly reasonable to you at the time)?

They always seemed as "reasonable" as they've always been. Ideas like solipsism, being God, free will, etc. And many more stupider and embarrassing ones. They are often philosophical in nature and you can argue them in many directions without reaching firm conclusions, whether you are having psychosis or not.

The difference is that when I started to become manic and have psychosis, they became about 100x more interesting and I had a very strong desire to share them with people, which made a fool out of myself by doing so. When you have psychosis you also misjudge social interactions a lot which makes it even worse.

In the hospital when the psychosis was getting really bad, it's like reality itself begins to break. For example I have very vivid memories of another patient reading my thoughts and then saying them out loud. I'm still not sure what happened there.

At work I was pretty good at keeping it under wraps, though.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#118

Post by kenneth_reitz »

kruhft wrote: post #114
tominous wrote: post #30

This story struck a nerve because (in hindsight) I saw the same thing happening to my brother when he was about 19. He was suddenly interested in astrology, reiki, "tachyon energy disks", epiphanies, angels and demons, the vibrations of the universe. At the time I thought it was a phase. My mother was always talking (tongue-in-cheek?) about her "parking angel" and burning incense, so I thought he had just picked up t…

This is an interesting read on the difference of views between the Western and African views of 'mental illness' from an African (Witch) Doctor after visiting some western mental hospitals: http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/08/22/shaman-sees-mental-hospital/ tl;dr: Most of what we view as mental illness they view as the birth or awakening of a 'healer' and should be treated that way for proper acceptance of the person…

Yeah, I read that article a lot.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#119

Post by jzwinck »

kenneth_reitz wrote: post #110
stickfigure wrote: post #101

Eerily similar to this recent story from This American Life, which unfortunately has a less happy ending: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/579/m... TL;DL: Man goes into a manic state, checks himself into a hospital, and gets shot by police.

I was tased :(

How did that happen? And what if anything do you now think about the permissive attitude of some people toward tazing? E.g. did you find any lasting effects?

By the way, hi. I enjoyed your talk at PyConSG a little before this all happened.

Re: MentalHealthError: an exception occurred

#120

Post by ascorbic »

fiatjaf wrote: post #77
ascorbic wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia (the main causes of psychosis) are genetic, not caused by "spiritual crisis". The spiritual stuff is a symptom of psychosis, not a cause. "Heritability for schizophrenia was 64% and for bipolar disorder 59%." http://europepmc.org/articles/pmc3879718

You don't know that.

The paper that I cited is just one of dozens if not hundreds of studies on the heritability of the diseases. The evidence is overwhelming. Anecdotally, almost everyone I know with serious mental illness has at least one family member who does too.
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