B
BarbaraTherese
Guest
This ‘normality’ thing is an interesting question. Those that can adjust psychologically to the problems and injustices, the evils that do exist in our environments and/or societies, are regarded as ‘normal’…perhaps humanity was never created to be able to adjust to them and yet we are called the ‘abnormal’ (I suffer Bipolar). This is a question of interest to philosophy and to psychiatry…ie…What exactly is ‘normal’ for a human being and the answer evades. What is regarded as the ‘normal’ is rather that which is most common in our societies…and what cannot adjust to our societies and environments becomes the abnormal asking adjustment to society…at this point psychology and/or psychiatry steps in as a social invention to facilitate such an adjustment. I read in TIME magazine years ago that “in an insane society, then the sane would be regarded as insane” A true and very interesting comment!
Certainly in some cases to react with PTSD to major trauma may be a completely ‘normal’ type of human reaction - but not regarded as such. As painful as PTSD can be.
No, PTSD and any other mental illness, is not at all sinful, rather simply an illness (a painful one!) like any other. And our spirituality, our state of soul, can be just as rich, or even richer, than any other so called ‘normal’ person. All these terms are misnomers…mental illness is a reaction just as heart disease is a reaction to a problems with the heart. Yet people suffering heart disease are not termed ‘abnormal’. All these types of words we use, and misnomers in connection with MI, have served to reinforce the quite cruel, false and illogical stigma of mental illness.
I have even heard it advocated that a sufferer of mental illness is spiritually crippled, which is plainly stupid and illogical - to put it mildly. In fact I read in a Catholic magazine a comment by the editor that those who suffer mental illness cannot experience true compassion…nor would Father retract after I spoke with him. He said I had misunderstood him, yet every senior worker in Public Mental Health I showed the magazine to did agree with me that what had been written could not be misunderstood - it clearly stated that a person suffering MI could not experience true compassion…nothing to misunderstand.
Of course The Lord loves us just as much as any other:thumbsup: Why not!!!
We battle on - not only with very painful illnesses, but with the misunderstandings and rejections (which stigma in essence is) around us.
Blessings and regards…Barb
