From Breakdown to Breakthrough ~ the crazy truth of spiritual emergence (intro excerpt)

Allowing for the fact that agreement may not be possible, I will proceed in telling the story of my experience with mental, emotional and spiritual health. Fears related to fighting in defense against the disregard of others will remain safely stored in some pocket of my psyche. I accept that people may continue to be inclined to tell me my experiences could not possibly mean what I suggest they do, while insisting their meaning of my experience is the truth. My intention in suggesting that there is more to insanity, to breakdown and breakthrough, than we assume under the auspices of the western science medical model is not to provoke a battle. My intention is to inform and inspire. I also intend to challenge some of the assumed norms we have swallowed without digesting, as generations of societal influence force fed us definitions of health and success. 

The “crazy” people, those denigrated and marginalized as such in our society, have not yet become a social group that holds our collective attention. Perhaps their plight lacks the glitz and glam required to capture mainstream interest. Clearly the societal will required for change in terms of how we regard mental illness has not yet been galvanized. We are missing a critical mass of change agents, otherwise known as people who care, to challenge the dehumanizing injustice suffered routinely by those contained in the catchall category called “crazy”.

We heal as a collective human family when we pay attention to the truth of people’s experience. This requires that we hear each other. Just as we have begun to do for specific social groups that suffer stigmatization and mistreatment, it is way beyond time we give people who have experienced the most extreme social neglect our full attention.

A movement to radially reorient our approach to this neglected group is now due.

I’d like to initiate that movement by placing attention and focus on the need for social change when it comes to how we speak and think about those deemed insane. With our use of language, each of us has the power to directly improve the treatment of those suffering with illness and/or struggling with transformation. The power resides in a willingness to change the words you use to reference those you do not understand.

In writing this book I aim to contribute my voice to develop a foundation for a growing chorus of voices who care enough to say: hey everyone…stop and pay attention to your family members and friends, your neighbors with homes and without. Go beyond the separation, the stigma of diagnosis and become curious about what people actually experience. Challenge what you’ve been told to believe about the experience of others. Challenge the status quo method of casting people off as crazy. 

To understand is perhaps our most valuable human exchange. To understand, we begin by questioning. Question your unconscious conclusions and our collective measures of insanity. Check in with your heart and allow yourself to wonder why a distinct group of people have been identified with illness and stigmatized as less than. Wonder why so few of us seem to care. 

Our mental healthcare system is in need of a radical overhaul in terms of the treatment it offers.

It is my hope that more of us will align in willingness to engage change when it comes to mental, emotional and spiritual health.