Depression. Bipolarity. Schizophrenia. Autism. Asperger’s. OCD. ADD. ADHD. God-knows-what-D… I lost track of all the new acronyms that have developed in recent years…

Let me be clear from the get go as to which side of the fence I am writing from… I have been diagnosed with “bipolar disorder” twenty years ago. Along with that diagnosis came the inevitable social judgement: “abnormal”… Understand here: flawed, unfit and at times scary, perhaps even dangerous.

The latin etymology of the word “abnormal” translates simply into “outside of the norm”. In statistics it refers to the elements at the extremities of the Bell curve. A statistical minority in other terms.

So how did we go from a simple observation “outside of the norm” to a judgement? Flawed, unfit, scary, dangerous.

Let’s go back to the common denominator to those considered “mentally ill”: an acute sensitivity to the world. A sensitivity so strong that it would cause them to retreat into their own world for the autistic, plunge into utter despair for the depressed, trigger “manic” states for the bipolar, create split personalities to be able to cope with reality for the schizophrenic, total lack of focus for the ADD, a compulsive need to control their environment for the OCD etc .

The typical answer to that, in 99% of the cases, is heavy medication to bring those people back into the “norm”, to function “properly”. Understand: how society has decided it was acceptable to function. It is interesting to note that in tribes that our allegedly “civilised” society calls “primitive”, people who display such characteristics are believed to be able to communicate with the spirit world, see the unseen, channel messages, heal and actually lead thanks to what is considered a “gift” and not a “defect”. Those people are accompanied by shamans to nurture those gifts and by doing so to answer a higher calling. Whereas in our “modern” society those people are shut down and forced to enter a norm they actually don’t belong to. Effectively triggering a slow death of their soul.

There is a big trend today supported by celebrities and royal families pushing people to acknowledge and get help for their “mental illness”. I agree 100% that people who are “different” (and not “abnormal” in the contemporary sense of the word) in their perceptions and reactions to the outside world be accompanied to be able to live their lives without pain or potential danger to themselves or others. I will come back to that point. However what I challenge is the very word “mental illness”.

By definition people who are considered “mentally ill” are sick, not well and dare I say “wrong” according to society. I make the case that it is in fact the very labelling “ill” that is inherently wrong.

Let’s go back to the common denominator to the “mentally ill”: an acute sensitivity to the outside world. Literally the world constantly aggresses us through its violence, its noise, its superficiality, its lack of empathy towards fellow living beings (human and otherwise). What is considered “normal” by most is a daily aggression to us. And there is two reasons to that: 1) because our threshold is significantly lower to the norm (or the average person) making our ability to cope very difficult 2) because we have a sense that things are not the way they should be. That “normality” is not “normal” at all for us. It is actually contradicting what we feel, what we see, what we hear deep inside.

The thing is we channel an alternative truth, a different perspective. Being part of a minority, obviously, this truth is not mainstream. We are not “sick”, we connect to the world very differently from the majority of people (the norm). A lot of us are empaths, healers, psychics, even geniuses and pioneers. You don’t believe me? Here is a short list of famous people with “mental disorders”: Abraham Lincoln (depression), Nikola Tesla (OCD), Vincent Van Gogh (bipolarity, schizophrenia), Charles Darwin (panic disorder), Michelangelo (Asperger’s, OCD), Winston Churchill (bipolarity), Charles Dickens (depression), Ludwig Van Beethoven (bipolarity), Ernest Hemingway (depression), Florence Nightingale (bipolarity), Isaac Newton (bipolarity), Leo Tolstoy (depression)…

Now, are all “mentally ill” “special” in the positive sense of the word? The answer is no. Adolf Hitler who was psychotic and notoriously suffering from an immense narcissistic disorder had definitely nothing positive about him. However I make the case that 1) we are not all psychopaths 2) most of us should be given at least a chance to share our alternative truth instead of being systematically shut down.

Think about it… When does humanity evolve? When one person comes up and challenges the accepted truth. Take Galileo who argued that it was in fact the Earth that revolved around the sun and not the other way around. He was investigated by the Roman Inquisition who concluded that “heliocentrism was foolish and absurd, formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts the Holy scripture”… I am ready to bet that if Galileo lived in modern times he would be sent to a psychiatric hospital. At the risk of sounding very controversial I will also advance that Jesus Christ, Buddha, Prophet Mohamad and countless others would too… Talking to God??? In our modern society that equates to being a lunatic… Full stop.

What would happen if we changed the word “abnormal” (outside of the norm) by “extraordinary” (outside of the ordinary)?

By changing one word suddenly we don’t see defective people but superheroes gifted with superpowers.

However any superhero needs to learn to channel and master their superpower and this is where the problem lies.

We, the “mentally ill”, are not “sick”. We have a gift. A gift that most often than not is a suffocating burden. Because most people don’t understand us and our reactions. Because modern medicine wants to drug us, put us in a box and throw away the key. Among all the doctors I’ve seen for my alleged “bipolarity” only one chose not to judge and actually to listen to what I was hearing, feeling, seeing in what I call my “trances” or “elated states”. The others just gave me heavy medication to make me come down from what they called “manic phases” (I hate that word!), not trying for a second to ask me what I was experiencing, resulting in throwing me back into clinical depression.

Luckily I am followed now by that one enlightened doctor to whom I actually dedicate this post. And he taught me something important. Although I am not “sick” I have an acute sensitivity to this world (and to the unseen world, if you can accept that such a thing actually exists). As such, there are things that I need to be able to function in society. Not to be “normal”. I am not “normal” and happy not to be. But to be able to live without being in constant pain or putting myself in danger when I get in a state of trance. The most important one is a balanced life where the mind, body and soul are equally nourished. The other is a certain degree of medication, carefully chosen and dosed for me as an individual (not a high dosage of mixed drugs which have been parametered as a “one size fits all”) to protect me from what I perceive as an aggressive environment.

I will finish by letting you ponder on another word: “dis-order”. What if it was not a sickness but an ability to “disrupt the order” so that humanity can evolve?

The Unicorn