Crazy for You

In the next suburb west from my family home is an old tumbledown mental institution. We used to go on Sunday drives through it, checking out the broken windowed architecture of a dumping group of what society referred to as "refuse".

Driving these through grounds, sounds weird, however I could almost "feel" the anguish, torment, terror and hopelessness of the patients - patient in their captivity only due to being heavily drugged.

Contraversially and without academic qualification, I do not believe that is appropriate to label someone as Mentally Ill.

How many people do we all know whose thoughts and feelings and sensations live outside of the acceptable societal paradigm? How any of them have been labelled genius and innovative for pushing the boundaries and seeking to breath life into absurdity?

History shows that much of what psychiatry formally considered a disorder or illness was the result of a cultural norm or bias and this perception will vary over time and place.

We are all neurodiverse. That is why we have different personalities, strengths and talents. Some argue that untreated mental health conditions can get in the way of our expressing our US ness. On the other hand, neurodiversity advocates argue that there may be more positive potential in recognizing neurodiverse subjects outside the accepted framework. In other words, it might prove more helpful to acknowledge a broader spectrum of human variation rather than approaching these variations as "mental illnesses" in need of "cures."

My questions is if physical illness or symptoms are expressed when the body trying to talk to us and trying to heal, then what is mental illness? We all own fantasies which polarise what we identify as holding value. Intense focus and skewed polarity will present as mental illness. The mental processes are not at ease - not experiencing wellness - but a swinging polarity unfetered by societal benchmarks.

Could mental illness symptoms being expressed be clues and healing opportunities in this same vein?

The concepts of wellness and illness co exist on a pendulum, which swings back and forth.

How much freedom would one experience on this swing?