This post will change your mind about mental health

I just read a book about schizophrenia. It was written by Nathan Filler, a professional mental health nurse in the UK. This book is amazingly useful for all of us as human beings. To read it was easy, but now, the most difficult part is to write about it. I spent the entire night thinking how to start and what to write.

-           Start with the start, Victoria!

-           Right! :)

Accepted or not, we all have mental inconveniences, from anxiety, depression, delusions, hallucinations, paranoia, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) to schizophrenia and the huge problem is that most of us suffer of anosognosia (where someone is not able to perceive the deteriorating condition of their mental health) too. 

Sometimes we grow up knowing that we have a problem, but we are too ashamed to speak loud about it or too afraid to admit you have the problem (because of social pressure).

 Nathan Filler agrees that in the UK, every year 300 000 people lose their jobs due to mental health issues.  In these conditions who would have the courage to admit that they have a problem?

Apparently we were not born as rational beings, but other way around. We have prejudices, superstitions, misremembered details, we are emotional, we believe in lies we have told ourselves and opinions treated as facts. Robert M. Pirsing says that when one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it is called religion. Furthermore, James Harvey Robinson observed that most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do. Karl Jasper concludes that since time immemorial, delusions has been taken as the basic characteristic of madness. To be mad was to be deluded. 

We are not rational and our mind is very thin, mysterious and unpredictable. There is no certain algorithm or explanation for those predisposed to mental health issues, but some of these factors may open a conversation with yourself as well as with those around you:

Note: the order is arranged according to the life stages and not to the influence towards the human being brain.

11.   The inherited trauma. 

       We take the pain from our ancestors, relatives and people who surround us. 

 a). When I was working for the film about the Pitesti Experiment and interviewed the relatives and children of those who suffered during the Pitesti Experiment, I found out that their pain was there, maybe even more prominent after one or two generations.  

The children of those persecuted because of social, racial or political causes (such as Communism, Nazism, colour people, LGBT) still have wounds which have not been healed even after 2, 3 generation. 

b). Maybe you have noticed that when in a negative environment, you tend to become negative yourself too. If you live with people suffering from depression or anxiety and relate to them a lot, soon enough will face the same kind of problems yourself.

22.    The mother’s womb life, mothers in general and parents (parents meaning those who raised you and not those who gave birth to you). 

      It was observed that the children conceived during the Dutch starvation (at the end of the 2^nd World War) and during the Chinese famine (1959-61), registered a high rate cases  of schizophrenia. 

      Seems that the people who receive a diagnosis of schizophrenia in adulthood may have suffered a form of foetal or early-life brain insult, including maternal illness during pregnancy (including flue or any other bacterial infections, emotional pressure and stress).   

      Parents (especially mothers) were blamed for causing their children to develop schizophrenia between 1940 to 1970 when the concept of schizophrenogenic mother was being debated.

A love lesson: When I was travelling to USA in February 2020 to promote the crowdfunding campaign for my film about The Pitesti Experiment, I was hosted by a Romanian family. They had three sons, a 5 years old boy and two twins of 7 years old.  When the twins were toddlers, the parents were facing difficulties: mother and father would sleep only 2, 3 hours per night because the children would cry all the time. 

- I read lots of books about the best child raising methods in that time, she told me – all British researchers advised to let the child cry until he/she will stop. Me instead, I would hold them tight and kiss them. You know what is the result? 

- What is it? I replied very curious. 

- Now, when I am sad or crying, my all sons come to hug and kiss me.

33.   Childhood abuse. 

      The origin of mental health problems when mature come from a tough childhood and lack of social support/lack of love and care. 

     Children who faced sexual or emotional abuse, bullying, racism, parental divorce, commuting from a school to another or from a city to another in a short period of time, a too strict education, harsh parents, domestic violence, lack of encouragements and acknowledgment in childhood and adolescence, all of these things can lead to a person developing depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, diabetes type 2. 

      Furthermore, childhood adversity, including being in an environment with strict parents or parental violence, tension or conflict plays a role in cancer, respiratory disease, heart disease, drug and alcohol misuse, violence (according to Hughes M., et al.).

44.     Social pressure, poverty, insecurity, and large discrepancies between social classes. 

      Societies with the greatest income inequality also have the highest mental illness rate (ex. USA and UK).

55.   Migration, ethnicity. 

      Migrants who face marginalization and exclusion, minority ethnic groups, social minorities, they are the most exposed to mental illnesses, even for the second generation, according to Nathan Filler, presumably because of social and institutional racism. 

66.  Genes and other biological explanations. 

     There is no clear evidence if genes or biological texture of a human being generate a predisposition to mental illness. Researchers still do a tremendous work to find more information. Genes may have an influence in some people’s mental illnesses, but is it yet unclear how and in what capacity.  The human brain is still a mystery. We do know, though, that there are some people more sensitive to mental illnesses than others.

77.   Mental health medications. 

     While for some, medications can help ameliorate symptoms and make one’s life easier, for many, medications can even make worst the state of mind of those suffering from mental illnesses, Nathan Filler concludes. 

      It is known that for depression, many are prescribed Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI’s) since serotonin is considered to be one of the best-known chemicals responsible for happiness.

      Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which helps to relay messages from one area of the brain to another. This includes brain cells related to mood, sexual desire and function, appetite, sleep, memory and learning, temperature regulation, and some social behaviour. 

      Even though serotonin is manufactured in the brain, some 90% of our serotonin supply is found in the digestive tract and in blood platelets. That’s why when sad, some may first think of eating some chocolate, pastries, drinking alcohol or taking drugs. Chocolate and pastries are tryptophan providers (the amino acid from which serotonin is made) which will fill in our stomach while the drugs and alcohol may go to our blood and brain -  in a best case scenario, all the serotonin losses would be replenished (but it seems more complicated than that, more info here.

      Researchers believe that the lack of serotonin produced by the brain can lead to depression, as well as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, panic, and even excess anger.

Studies show that men are born with a higher quantity of serotonin than women and there is a huge difference in how man and women react to a reduction in serotonin: girls and women are twice likely than men to experience depression. Why? Well, because biologically, psychologically and socially women are different than men. 

Recently discussed about this with a young man. He promoted the idea of equality between men and women, very laudable…I thought.. Until I realized that he actually promoted the ‘equality’ between women and men in his advantage. 

Now women work more than man just to prove they can be their equals. Now women struggle to be men and women at the same time.  If you see a woman carrying a heavy bag and  you let her struggle just because she is your ‘equal’ as a man, well, this gesture  is not an equality, but lack of education  and  courtesy – things that should have been mastered at home, inside the family,  in the first place.

The problem of equality is wrongly understood though. It is about equal opportunities, equal chances, equal freedom of choice. We can not talk about body equality, biological equality, mental equality. As a matter of fact man and women are different and that’s the beauty of nature.  Man and women can be considered equal only when man  and women both will be able to give birth, have menstruation, have the same tolerance for pain, have the same quantity of serotonin in their bodies, think in the same way and have the same physical and psychological endurance and development.

A funny story – I was discussing with a guy about the lack of serotonin in the body of a woman: 

Me: - Well, women have less serotonin quantity, I said, maybe because they are stronger genetically than man (chromosome xx is stronger than xy) and  to replenish the loss of serotonin would make them need men around because man can  make women happy (sic:P). Would you try to make a woman happy? 

Man:- No need to do anything to make her happy because anyway the loss of serotonin won’t replenish and anyway woman and men are equal, this is what you want, this is what you got.

As I said, education is crucial in the development of the society. Knowledge and education will make the difference from person to person. Childhood education and then self education (at maturity) are so so so important. I guess that first of all, women and man should learn about their differences before the similarities. I think that man and women should study their bodies, needs, mentalities, perceptions, expectations and feelings. I think that human mind and human body should be studied by all, no matter of social classes, gender, age, ethnicity. Only in this way we can develop a healthy society. To  learn from the mistakes of our ancestors, to understand the truths of the nature, to acknowledge the facts of the world and act accordingly, these things will help us live a beautiful and wise life.

How mental health affects us?

Well, from loss of purpose in life, social inconveniences,  isolation, fear, brain atrophy to social exclusion, stigma and death, this is a major problem in the world and should be treated with seriousness and in a very urgent manner. 

Latins knew that mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body) and the beauty of the society is made with saner people. 

I guess that most of us are ill now. We have frustrations from generations (inherited traumas), from our mother’s womb (you never know if your mum was happy when she was pregnant with you and all was good at that time), from childhood (can be many issues there you never gave a thought about yet), adolescence….When reaching maturity you actually carry so much pain which would be transformed in mental or physical illnesses. 

The worst part is that if you choose not to treat these issues now, you will give them to your children or to your friends and family. As you can see, everything is subject to inheritance. If your frustrations and illnesses would be repeated or transmitted to further generations, then we will grow up in an ill society.

How to change that?

Love and care: give love and allow yourself to receive back.  Unconditionally. Remember:  giving is the best communication.  Then share, debate and discuss, speak out loud about what you feel and what you think, ask for help and advice and allow yourself to get help. Listen to music. Do sports. Make your life busy and be of use in the society.   A friend just mentioned biofield healing.  Studies show that psychedelics also may help. More info about this here and here.

 Some other friend referred to existential psychotherapy  . 

 Nathan Filler explains in his book that we all face at least once a phase of delusion or hallucination, that this is normal and being part of our natural being. Delusion comes from our ‘suspicion system’ which puts us in alert to protect us in case of any danger. For example when hearing something rustle behind us in a dark forest or park, the first thought maybe of a forceful animal or a thief behind us. Then it may calm us down after finding an explanation for that noise:

 - It must be the wind, or some leaves in the grass.   

This ‘suspicion system’ is part of our evolutionary level and it is about survival, about producing and providing for offspring. The problem starts when this fear is maximized by stress, environment pressure, society.   R.D. Laing  says that schizophrenia is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in a unlivable situation.  

Although there are hundreds of types of schizophrenia, there is a tendency to divide them in two big categories. The human mind protects itself creating paranoia – a  suspicion which can not shut itself down, a broken form of threat detection, and grandiosity , which may be a broken threat response.  Most of the people suffering from schizophrenia are protecting themselves from a threat. Sometimes they make themselves small and hide outside from the society (they are afraid to socialize, speak, see people, think that someone wants to kill or harm them) – this is paranoia. Some others make themselves big in order to send the threat away (they see themselves gods, people with special missions, or other influential persons) – and this is grandiosity.

Is it possible to live like this? Sometimes it is possible, sometimes it is not. It is all about the fight for life. Sometimes you can live well with medications, sometimes they may make you even worst. It depends. The human brain is a mystery. 

What we can do is try to avoid future generations from having to suffer from this. 

To learn from the past, we have to learn from the present, this is the secret of the human progress. If saner, then we will be able to create and develop more beautifully.

Read the book of Nathan Filer. 

It will change your perspective about mental health.  

Dare to explore this part of your life and this part of life of those close to you. Have the courage to give yourself a chance.

***

1. It is strange and terrible how the reaction this book brought about in my friends and connections. Most of them declined to read it because they were afraid to find that they suffer from mental health conditions. 

– It is better to not know, one told me.

 – No, it is better to know and learn from it, it is better to know and to improve your state of mind, I argued. 

This is how we make stigma disappear. We must give a chance and READ.
2. I have suffered depression several times, twice asking for help from doctors. Both times I choose to take citalopram. It helped. 

Photo credits: AMC (Academy of Creative Minds 2019)