Well, the news is pretty good. Yesterday, I had my appointment with the Early Psychosis program and the Psychiatrist has found that I'm not schizophrenic, but rather have a psychosis issue that should be manageable (if not curable).
It's amazing how our society's need for labels has pressed several on to me... incorrectly.
The roller coaster that we go on when we start to investigate the human mind is incredibly hard because of our label dependent society, the time between appointments, the stigma placed around any sort of mental illness, and our own nightmares.
There is a very good reason for the stigma to exist, but an even better reason to come to grips with it and put it to rest.
Let me explain.
The stigma around mental illness comes in several stages. First, we have our connection to the person in question who is having a hard time and we see him going through all of the process of figuring out what may or may not be wrong with them. Secondly, no matter how much we care about the person, our subconscious makes us worry about the time when our own brains may fail us. Thirdly, there is the confusion created by the system because of the confusion around the brain... it's the chicken and the egg problem all over again... Our best scientists don't have a full understanding of the inner-workings of the brain. So when one of us has a broken brain, and we see a myriad of counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, receptionists, and computer systems in order to figure out the problem, it is still incredibly difficult. Now add our incessant and indecent need to label everyone and everything (including ourselves!!!) and a scary situation is made even worse.
Understanding where the stigma comes from should lead us to a way to slowly improve it, and maybe even reduce it to the point that it's a thought process instead of a dark cloud that hangs over mental health in the most unhelpful and damaging manner.
As human beings, we pride ourselves in being about to think above "the other animals". We have tools, technology, and toys and we thrive to learn more. Let's strip the stigma bare.
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