Maybe you’d be better off saying “could” here. LOL! I am moderately clinically depressed and my depression is easily and well controlled with medication. Knowing this about myself, dealing with it, and attending secular therapy and spiritual counseling has actually made me stronger and better able to deal with despair than the average person, IMO.
I have a saying: The crazy people are the ones who don’t THINK they’re crazy.
I have a saying: The crazy people are the ones who don’t THINK they’re crazy
I have heard that in psychiatric circles it is said that it is not the one’s that seek treatment and abide by it that worry us, we really worry about the ones that don’t seek it and need it - and think that they dont need to do so.
So called ‘normality’ or ‘normal’ can be said to be an ever shifting imaginary line about what is acceptable and not acceptable within any given society. It is what is most common and acceptable in society and builds up society, contributes to society, assists society to survive. To illustrate this, not so many years ago as society travels, a person with any sort of mental disorder was looked upon as near on possessed by the devil and totally marginalized and rejected. Then the imaginary line shifted and society largely through the successful use of medications in those who were ill after all, began to accept those with mental illness - to make some room for them and allowances for the problems their illnesses could present. Society began to update its knowledge about mental illness to come in line with more accurate and truthful understandings from those that existed in the middle ages. In some countries to descriminate against a sufferer of MI because of the illness became illegal - the line is shifting further. Then the imaginary line shifts even further again and people who did have a mental illness and were successfully treated including with medication were able to return to the workforce, even to their professions and careers - and very successfully too! The line shifts even more and some countries do not call people “disabled” rather the term used is “abled person” - think about it.
Many quite famous people who made outstanding contributions to society suffered mental illness, including Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln - for a fairly reliable list go to
HERE
Most probably have seen the award winning movie “A Beautiful Mind” which is the true story of Nobel Laureate in Economics, John Forbes Nash Jr. He had a lifetime of the most serious of all mental illnesses: schizophrenia.
The Church is also a society or community and if we look at our history, we can see how this imaginary line has shifted at times over the years. The Church however shifts this line very very very slowly and with great care before it is shifted - and those with mental illness are still on the wrong side of that line in the main. Let us hope and pray for that shifting line for the future. Religious life and the priesthood can present great strains at times and stress, demands - but so does secular life for sure, and many sufferers of MI are making excellent contributions to society and living stable lives and probably often with daily medication as with any other illness. Mental illness is often a dysfunction somewhere in the brain and hence is often a physical illness like any other, that affects mental functioning and hence “mental illness” can be something of a misnomer conveying a completely wrong understanding at times. The brain is an organ of the body just as is the heart, lungs, kidney, liver etc. and like any organ in the body it can develop problems.
Thankfully, very thankfully to God, nowadays medicine is making absolutely amazing breakthroughs at times where illness is concerned, including medication for treating various mental disorders (so termed) which allows those who do suffer some forms of illness to lead normal(so termed) lives and function just as normally (so termed) as any other person, in fact sometimes as good as or even better.
TS
