[split] Sanity -- from the Humanities Zoo thread

[Yelleryella123]

My only friends are mentally ill people. Everyone has problems. But some just cling to comfort, the comfort of luxury or groups or ignorance. Yet my friends, not wanting to take prescription drugs, ....................................................................................................... Men are fickle, weak, and easily molded. But you can find your own self... chase your own soul. And discover how easily you're tempted, and know exactly what you're fighting.

- The acceptance that comes from the commonality of a mental illness..To be able to relate to another being is a human need but I think it could exasperate the problem in an individual when they feel so alienated that they think they need a mental illness to be able to relate and be taken care of. It seems like some people want to be mentally ill and thrive off of it. I'm in line with what you have said and I have had similar experiences.
I'm going on a little rant now.
I am interested in eating disorders (because I used to have one). I don't agree with treatment where people are put into a facility with others with the same problem or worse. I understand the benefits of this, connection, relation, support. But more often than not from the examples I have seen it looks like everyone is 'feeding' off of each other. Rebelling in secret teams against the care takers who take their control away because food is about control for them and if you take that away, they will find other ways to be in control. There is a social hierarchy and there is always a leader of the group mentality. In these groups the leader seems to be the one who rebels the most and gets away with it. The one who can sneak you cigs and show you the tricks - How is that productive? Why isn't there mindfulness training and separation of living quarters. These people need to see into their behavior outside of their dependance on group acceptance and they need to be able to regain some control over themselves - not have their power completely stripped away. Mindfulness is what worked for me.. Nobody could fix me - I had to make the choice to fix myself. If you don't want to be mentally ill I think the best way to get out of it is through serious introspection and surrounding yourself with open authentic people - hard to find but I found the more authentic I am the more authentic people are around me. And as you said, everyone has problems. Some people numb it, some people fix it and some people are proud of it. A perceived mental illness doesn't have to mean your mind is broken. You are as unique as a snowflake as corny as that sounds. It's all about perspective. If you are around people with a damaging perspective - remove yourself.

The most intelligent and decent person will throw all their beliefs and all their dreams away, the moment the group mentality sets in. I know, I feel myself tempted into the comfort of group thinking. And it happens before you even realize it.

I used to be a socialite - admittedly I depended on others approval for my own happiness. (I don't know if it is possible to completely transcend it.) Once I realized this I became removed and depressed. I thought it was wrong to stop "doing" and spend time alone as a recluse - that seems to be what our culture teaches us. Then I began to think being a recluse was the way to be and I didn't need anyone/I am better than people. As that depression lifted from my ego being rubbed out of feeling superior to society - the depression came right back and hit me in the face harder than before when I realized that is exactly the attitude that is destroying the world and my mental status - superiority, separation and fanaticism. It took me being an arrogant ignorant stubborn victimizing fool to realize there is another choice outside of following group mentality or burrowing into a hole of seclusion. Independent development, social authenticity and taking everything with a grain of salt. I think that might just be the key to changing the world. People need to figure out what they are though. If they are products of people around them or they are independent.

So like the Jewish philosopher, Groucho Marx, said: "Whatever it is... I'm against it!"

Talk of religion is going on here, too. When Christ said: "I bring not peace, but a sword..." that whole part of his speech is important to the fact that people are easily and subtly influenced. "You think I've come to bring peace. But I say, I've come to divide..." Great stuff he said. Men are fickle, weak, and easily molded. But you can find your own self... chase your own soul. And discover how easily you're tempted, and know exactly what you're fighting.

I love everything you wrote here. Although I don't agree with Marx. Explore it. Understand it. Change it. Fix it. Accept it. Add to it, take away from it. Grow from it. Don't close yourself off from any thing until you've given it a fair chance - but go about everything with journalistic objectivity and create your own philosophies.