Everyone Is Crazy

(Originally written: May, 2010)

Your boss. Your friends. Your family. The people you serve. Strangers on the street. People on TV. Politicians. Religious figures. Your partners. Your lovers. Your therapist. Yes - even YOU. Even me.

I've been having conversations and observations lately where I have come to believe that, in fact, everyone and everything is crazy. Oh, this may very well be a projection...and I am more than willing to consider that. But I think it goes beyond this. Let me explain.

What is mental illness anyways? Labels and diagnoses are transient. The most recent version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - the standard clinical tool used by professionals to determine if, in fact, one has flown the coop - proposes to systematically drop at least five mental disorder classifications it previously listed for the upcoming edition. And, it has created another list of new disorders, including "Hypersexual Disorder," and "Penetration Disorder."

Homosexuality was listed as a disorder until 1973, at which point it was replaced with "sexual orientation disturbance" which, despite what you might think, is in the current version of the DSM listed alongside "paraphilias" such as "transvestic fetishism" and pedophilia. Who do you think suffers most from a sexual orientation disturbance? I'll give you one guess.

What happens to those folks who were diagnosed with illnesses that are no longer listed? Have they suddenly become cured?

The history of the DSM itself is suspect, and comes with a long and controversial history of speculation on what it is exactly that qualifies someone as ill. Freud - arguably the grandfather of psychiatry, after all, believed that cocaine should be the treatment of choice for neuroses, and particularly useful as an antidepressant.

Having worked in mental health for over a decade and studied my own behaviour, the behaviour of others and the world around me, I'm not so convinced that there is such a thing as normalcy. There is not much difference between the key holder, and the one held beneath the key.

When I first started having conversations with folks who had been diagnosed with mental disorders, I had a very hard time determining what it is that makes these folks "crazy". The experiences shared, thoughts, insights, perceptions, awareness, while often different from my own - reveal an alternate reality oftentimes, but the associated behaviours are not so different from what anyone might experience. In fact, some of those 'alternate realities' are rooted in good logical sense. I once knew a fellow who could tell me intricate details of the electromagnetic grid of the earth and why certain areas were more charged than others, and what the potential impacts of this might be when walking around day to day. Though he had not done any specific research into his theories, upon brief skimming online I found that indeed, there was evidence to substantiate his "delusions."

The point is, we all have different coping strategies for dealing with the world, pain, trauma, grief, our feelings in general, relationships with others etc. Most of these strategies are things we have learned by default that get us by. It remains to be seen whether one can identify alternate strategies that provide more resiliency and less ill effects to ourselves and loved ones - while actually getting our needs met.

Everyone is crazy to some degree - the question is: How do we treat each other? I wager if we treated ourselves and those around us with more compassion, respect and kindness, the world would be a lot less crazy making.

For proposed revisions to the DSM 5 check here: http://www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=415)