mental illness

Word Picture: Is There Any Such Thing as Mental Illness?

The more you drive down that road the same way, the deeper the ruts get. Sometimes those ruts get so deep and ingrained, no amount of turning the wheel will get you out of the rut. That’s when a motor-grader machine comes in. It plows up and smooths out the ruts so you can get control of your car again.

But if you keep going down that road the same way all the time because you choose to steer along the same path, the ruts will return.

Part III: Is There Any Such Thing as Mental Illness?

Now to take the complementary view of the “mind”. Here we deal with something spiritual, not physical.

Science has demonstrated that living tissues (especially those of the brain) DIE from lack of oxygen. The definition of death, technically, is “cessation of cellular respiration.” Respiration means “breathing”. Breathing requires “air”. Air is Life.

Who knew?

Is There Any Such Thing as “Mental Illness?”

So, again, I dare you to show it to me this thing called “the mind” so we can all see it, define it, quantify it, study it, and treat it. Thus we can properly define and seek to cure this thing we call “mental” illness.

This is not to say that we can’t tell a lot about someone’s “mind”, but this we can do only indirectly. The contents of one’s thoughts, ideas, expressions, choices, actions, etc. tell us about the “mind” but they are not “the mind”. To direct some type of therapy to any one “thing” that is a “mind” is not like treating a lung or a liver or a pancreas.