Throughout the history of modern psychotherapy, therapists have puzzled over why some people simply don’t respond to their treatment, and do not make any mental or emotional shifts away from their problems or pathology. In a post in another of my blogs I took a small excerpt from my book, Beat Depression the Drug Free Way that talked about the anomaly – the incongruity – of people actually knowing that antidepressant medication is harmful, but on the other hand they bury that knowledge and go about their lives still taking the drugs.
This post now is an entirely different issue leading to the same outcome. It is that one of people being so at one with their pathology - "loving" what's emotionally out of whack with them. This means that they have found some sort of unconscious comfort and ‘belonging’ in being unwell with a mental problem – or in the DSM’s parlance, mental illness or disease.
Here is a small snippet from a message sent to me by someone who would apparently fit that description.
“… how about if depression isn’t something we fight against or don’t like, that we don’t just take with us, but wholly possesses us, yes – coexists with us, whether interminably and pervasively or fleetingly and stabbingly, whether we like it or not? Depression isn’t an alien. Depression is always right at home. It’s totally acceptable, to the most mindful of minds. …”
In philosophical terms, this writer was actually agreeing with the idea of depression not being the big ogre that pharmaceutical companies and society in general make it out to be: that it’s more natural than we give it credit for. But I strongly suspect that this person was presenting to me the idea that he or she was totally at one with the fact that depression lived with them and took over their existence. That implied, of course, that my writings were of no use to this writer; that he or she was not only unlikely to get any use out of the fight depression shout that I deliver, but there was absolutely no desire to say goodbye to what we can only describe as an ‘old friend’ to this person.
There’s no shame in this, of course. I have known many people who function perfectly and carry on apparently normal lives who continue in a perennially depressed state. My job is not to try to change that lifestyle for them. My job, as I see it, is to offer therapeutic and philosophical assistance if they ask and demonstrate a desire to make life different for them. So I do have to wonder why and how a person who is entirely at one with their pathology – who lives with their depression as though it is an old friend – would ever seek any writings that are obviously intended to assist people who have made a choice to end depression.
One of the very important messages in my book is that our belief systems are vital to the end result of how we run our lives and the choices we make. Choosing to remain in a comfortable pathology, while not seeming to make sense to many, makes perfect sense to an affectologist who understands the strange ways in which unconscious mind drivers operate. Be quite clear about your aims.
This post now is an entirely different issue leading to the same outcome. It is that one of people being so at one with their pathology - "loving" what's emotionally out of whack with them. This means that they have found some sort of unconscious comfort and ‘belonging’ in being unwell with a mental problem – or in the DSM’s parlance, mental illness or disease.
Here is a small snippet from a message sent to me by someone who would apparently fit that description.
“… how about if depression isn’t something we fight against or don’t like, that we don’t just take with us, but wholly possesses us, yes – coexists with us, whether interminably and pervasively or fleetingly and stabbingly, whether we like it or not? Depression isn’t an alien. Depression is always right at home. It’s totally acceptable, to the most mindful of minds. …”
In philosophical terms, this writer was actually agreeing with the idea of depression not being the big ogre that pharmaceutical companies and society in general make it out to be: that it’s more natural than we give it credit for. But I strongly suspect that this person was presenting to me the idea that he or she was totally at one with the fact that depression lived with them and took over their existence. That implied, of course, that my writings were of no use to this writer; that he or she was not only unlikely to get any use out of the fight depression shout that I deliver, but there was absolutely no desire to say goodbye to what we can only describe as an ‘old friend’ to this person.
There’s no shame in this, of course. I have known many people who function perfectly and carry on apparently normal lives who continue in a perennially depressed state. My job is not to try to change that lifestyle for them. My job, as I see it, is to offer therapeutic and philosophical assistance if they ask and demonstrate a desire to make life different for them. So I do have to wonder why and how a person who is entirely at one with their pathology – who lives with their depression as though it is an old friend – would ever seek any writings that are obviously intended to assist people who have made a choice to end depression.
One of the very important messages in my book is that our belief systems are vital to the end result of how we run our lives and the choices we make. Choosing to remain in a comfortable pathology, while not seeming to make sense to many, makes perfect sense to an affectologist who understands the strange ways in which unconscious mind drivers operate. Be quite clear about your aims.
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