Losing Those We Love to Mental Illness
by Rebecca Singer
The suspected suicide of Robin Williams has pushed me to write this newsletter. It is one I have thought of addressing for many years, and the time seems to be now.
Mental illness is still so misunderstood in our culture. It is invisible. If a person has a cast on their arm, people ask "What happened?" Sympathy follows, and the pain is acknowledged. But mental illnesses are not seen, and externally a person can appear to be fine. This makes the suffering even more isolating.
I don't pretend to speak on behalf of either medical doctors or everyone with a mental illness, but having lived with PTSD and survived one serious depression, I have some knowledge of the territory of mental illness.
Before I go any further, I want to make it very clear that my shamanic experiences have a totally different tone and feel to them than the challenges of PTSD or depression. The experiences of being a shaman have never mixed with the elements of PTSD.
We all have times of light and dark in our lives. But to suffer depression is to enter a kind of darkness from which there appears to be no escape. There is no source of light to be found, externally or internally. Some people can withstand this, and others cannot. There is an element of capacity involved, which may be connected to that persons strength of spirit. All the success in the world does not touch this darkness.
There are other factors in this case. Heart surgery itself can bring on depression, as can some of the medications used to deal with it. For others, an event, a loss, or a sudden change can trigger a depression.
Mental illness, as we understand it, is a result of genetics, early childhood experience, and general environment, as well as a disposition to the illness. There is a chemical aspect to many mental illnesses that cannot be denied, and although modern medications have been given a bad rap by the New Age community, they have saved lives, and made many lives livable. This is not a newsletter about treatment, however.
The isolation and suffering that depression cause cannot be understood unless you compare them to some pain that you have witnessed or felt that was unbearable to you. Unbearable, as in .......too much for the body, mind, spirit to contain. Then, it takes the perfect storm to allow even a well aware person to commit suicide. Even someone who understands and has dealt with depression and sought help. The perfect storm is a moment of solitude combined with depression and a feeling that it will never end, that there is no escape, that the battle is not going to ever be won, and that the recurrence is inevitable.
I am not sure of course, but I suspect that those who commit suicide often come to a very dark place and have to face not only their own pain, but the pain they have caused others as they work through their deaths. That is a statement from my intuitive sense of friends who have taken their own lives and my sense of them afterward.
Suicides as a result of mental illness are not ours to judge. Addictions and depression often go together, as drugs and alcohol are types of medication for the chemical imbalance.
My prayer is for the day when mental illness will no longer be a source of shame in this culture. When people will feel they can be accepted into their communities and held by the community. When medications will be effective, given appropriately and alternative Ceremonial help will also be a part of the norm. When people will gather to help those who have taken their own lives, to assist them in moving on quickly. And when those who are suffering get the help they need.
If you know of someone who is suffering, please be kind and please try to encourage them to get help.
To see details on Rebecca's private sessions at Crystal Essence click here.
The suspected suicide of Robin Williams has pushed me to write this newsletter. It is one I have thought of addressing for many years, and the time seems to be now.
Mental illness is still so misunderstood in our culture. It is invisible. If a person has a cast on their arm, people ask "What happened?" Sympathy follows, and the pain is acknowledged. But mental illnesses are not seen, and externally a person can appear to be fine. This makes the suffering even more isolating.
I don't pretend to speak on behalf of either medical doctors or everyone with a mental illness, but having lived with PTSD and survived one serious depression, I have some knowledge of the territory of mental illness.
Before I go any further, I want to make it very clear that my shamanic experiences have a totally different tone and feel to them than the challenges of PTSD or depression. The experiences of being a shaman have never mixed with the elements of PTSD.
We all have times of light and dark in our lives. But to suffer depression is to enter a kind of darkness from which there appears to be no escape. There is no source of light to be found, externally or internally. Some people can withstand this, and others cannot. There is an element of capacity involved, which may be connected to that persons strength of spirit. All the success in the world does not touch this darkness.
There are other factors in this case. Heart surgery itself can bring on depression, as can some of the medications used to deal with it. For others, an event, a loss, or a sudden change can trigger a depression.
Mental illness, as we understand it, is a result of genetics, early childhood experience, and general environment, as well as a disposition to the illness. There is a chemical aspect to many mental illnesses that cannot be denied, and although modern medications have been given a bad rap by the New Age community, they have saved lives, and made many lives livable. This is not a newsletter about treatment, however.
The isolation and suffering that depression cause cannot be understood unless you compare them to some pain that you have witnessed or felt that was unbearable to you. Unbearable, as in .......too much for the body, mind, spirit to contain. Then, it takes the perfect storm to allow even a well aware person to commit suicide. Even someone who understands and has dealt with depression and sought help. The perfect storm is a moment of solitude combined with depression and a feeling that it will never end, that there is no escape, that the battle is not going to ever be won, and that the recurrence is inevitable.
I am not sure of course, but I suspect that those who commit suicide often come to a very dark place and have to face not only their own pain, but the pain they have caused others as they work through their deaths. That is a statement from my intuitive sense of friends who have taken their own lives and my sense of them afterward.
Suicides as a result of mental illness are not ours to judge. Addictions and depression often go together, as drugs and alcohol are types of medication for the chemical imbalance.
My prayer is for the day when mental illness will no longer be a source of shame in this culture. When people will feel they can be accepted into their communities and held by the community. When medications will be effective, given appropriately and alternative Ceremonial help will also be a part of the norm. When people will gather to help those who have taken their own lives, to assist them in moving on quickly. And when those who are suffering get the help they need.
If you know of someone who is suffering, please be kind and please try to encourage them to get help.
To see details on Rebecca's private sessions at Crystal Essence click here.
