MIND VS MATTER: WHY MENTAL ILLNESS IS NOT AN ILLNESS

Simran Mendon
SYBA 2020

Food for thought: The beautiful, dense tree on the left represents your healthy, positive thoughts. The fickle, thorny one on the right represents toxic, negative thoughts. The goal is to break down the tree on the right so we could live a life we are truly in control of.

In the summer of 2020, amidst a global pandemic that forced most of us who were privileged enough into isolation, I encountered a crisis that was all my own. It was my private sanctuary, my sacred nightmare, an unexpected attack on my very foundation. After many sleepless nights, crying spells, and physically debilitating symptoms, I was diagnosed with depression (for the second time in my life) and severe anxiety. After much reluctance I was put on a host of antidepressant and anti - anxiety medication that I could not even spell let alone know anything about. Chapters of my family history which clearly listed out a genetic predisposition to mental illness unfurled before me and presented itself as a neat prediction and layout of my future. I was convinced, quite certainly and for a considerable time, that there was no way out. This was going to be my life as a depressed person – dependent on medication, always hanging by a thread, always fearful of myself. 

The uncertainty and bleakness of our current world did not help either. There are countless stories of hunger, starvation, suicides and even systemic racist murders that are fed to us as matter of fact as cereal on news outlets and social media platforms. 

You cannot escape the despondency of your world if it is everywhere, if it takes every shape or form possible; for example, if it is conferred to you as content (through your Instagram or WhatsApp, perhaps), as fact (through your preferred news outlet) and as a definite prediction of the future (through the packaging and selling of a current crisis as ‘the new normal’). 

I was convinced too that my current crisis was going to have to be my ‘new normal’. 

In fact most of us do. From what we learn of mental illness (through the hush hush tones and the whispers of course), we are made to believe that it lasts forever. We are told, through cinema for example, that a mental illness is synonymous with a loss of control; that if you are afflicted, you are not to be trusted and most importantly, you are not to trust yourself. 

The prophecy seems simple and logical: how can you trust yourself if your own brain could turn on you? 

And then it builds further into: how can you be trusted as an active, contributing member of the society if you cannot trust yourself? 

Therein lies the magic of our pharma – centered world. The foundation of the most telling dilemma of our post techno revolution society: the quest for the ‘quick fix’. 

We as a society are infatuated with the possibility of a ‘quick fix’; an easier solution, a simpler path to follow, the least effort required for maximum profit. We need to know where we’re going and we need to get there fast. There has to be an explanation for everything right? 

The prophecy again seems simple and logical: Your depression is the result of a chemical imbalance. It’s your bad genes. It’s just a disease of the brain that you cannot control or cure. Your only option is to take the medication available and pray for the best. 

Selective serotonin (a hormone responsible for happiness) reuptake inhibitors were introduced to the market in 1987, with the introduction of Fluoxetine. The SSRIs were almost instantly popular because they were much safer than other psychotic drugs. These drugs do not increase the amount of serotonin available in the brain but only prolong it, to last for longer periods of time. The SSRI became widely used very quickly for treatment of depression.

The Antidepressant industry as a whole makes 19 billion dollars per year. Pharmaceuticals is a 150 billion dollar industry only 14% of whose profit is spent on research and development as compared to the 31% spent on marketing and administration. 

31%. Billions of dollars are spent every single year to explain to you how you cannot trust yourself. How you cannot help yourself. 

But here is the truth: the mind is malleable. It is plastic. Through conditioning and careful regulation of one’s thought life, the mind can be rewired, remodeled, and rebuilt into whatever you want it to be. It is scientifically proven that changes in one’s thought life, that is, what you think about, how you conceptualize your thoughts into memories, the kind of mindset you adopt and your resilience to stressful stimulus can even physically change the structure of your brain. Neuroplasticity proves that even serious mental illnesses such as Schizophrenia, Major Depressive Disorder, and even learning disabilities can be reversed through long term modifications in thought life.

The most beautiful part about our bodies and minds is that it has the ability to produce its own medicines, its own ‘quick fixes’ for any kind of problem it faces through the pattern of lifestyle we choose to adopt. Having said that, our bodies and minds can also produce a dangerous amount of toxins and diseases both mental and physical by the pattern of lifestyle we adopt. 

The truth: we control our mind. We can trust ourselves. We are not the by - product of our genes or what has happened to us. We are the consequence of what we choose to become. Every single day. 

But then the question still looms large: Why are we, as a society, so afraid of mental illnesses? Why are so many people still committing suicide? If the mind is plastic, if there is long term recovery from mental ‘illnesses’, why are so many people hooked onto antidepressants? How exactly does this work? 

The prophecy here too is simple and logical: it works on fear. It operates on alarm. It is scientifically proven that humans have a natural proclivity towards the positive so it makes perfect sense that we learn fear. A sense of uneasiness that gradually develops into a real chronic anxiety is manufactured through our immediate gratification seeking, ‘quick fix’ obsessing culture. Culture in fact is centered on fear. Fear of the future, fear of the unknown and sometimes, the known, is sold to us as a reward, as a compromise for something greater. Take for instance, how political parties that are vying for power brand themselves to the public. They snatch power by presenting you the uncertainty and depravity of the present. The future will be better, they promise. If only you choose the one we’re offering. 

Fear is dangerous but it is also powerful. It is what keeps governments in order. It is what forces the ideals of a radical socio – political movement of the people to become the foundation for national policy. Fear is what drives people to succeed, to aim higher, to eventually gain a greater sense of self. 

But fear is lethal when it trickles downwards. Fear is lethal when it is what we use to base our definition of privileged and less privileged on. When fear influences opportunity, outcome and possibility, it builds a society that is inherently unjust and will remain perpetually flawed. It enables agencies that prey on this injustice and eventually profit off of it, agencies like the pharmaceutical industry. Agencies like the entertainment industry that has time and time again manipulated poor mental health into an edge of the seat suspense thriller. When fear becomes content, it births stereotypes and stigma. 

The truth: shame is cultivated. ‘Illness’ is influenced. The irony is evident that in a post techno world where information is everywhere, we are simultaneously edified to think less, feel more and choose only what is available. Because when you choose only what is given to you, only what is available, only the treatment and not the cure, you are also choosing your own low self - worth. You are also essentially choosing to be less than, to let fear delineate your contribution to society. 

And what begins and operates on fear externalizes itself through an evasion of responsibility. When you keep dogmatizing to people that their poor mental health is a result of just their genes or a chemical imbalance, you enable a lack of responsibility for one’s choices and decisions. Culture can only influence you so much. You still anatomize the power and choice to change. 

This is not to say that antidepressants are futile. They aren’t. They work. But they do not however possess the ability to make your illness go away. In fact, they reiterate, legitimize and reinforce your illness until you convince yourself and your society that you must have to live a life less than. That your depression is not an indication that you need to address some toxic thoughts, fine tune your behavior, be mindful of your body and soul but instead a disease you require a quick fix for. 

The point I’m trying to make is this: there is no victim. Yes, depression is real. Yes, it is innately difficult to go through and I can attest to this fact. But another fact that is backed by science and extensive research is that the brain is 100% plastic and that most mental ‘illnesses’ are a result of consistent, hard wired problematic thought patterns. But these patterns can be rewired, remodeled and made healthy again! You are still in control of your mind, your destiny and your genes all through the power of choice, through consistent self -  regulating thinking most importantly, through some solid hard work. It is not just ground breaking and empowering but fascinating! 

But here is where the social comes into play. Major pharmaceutical companies that own much of mind you, media and narrative, manipulate to their advantage not just the facts but the general perception surrounding mental health. I’m trying to explain here that the kind of fast paced, immediate gratification seeking culture that we live in today venerates evasion of responsibility. Capitalist consumer culture thrives on people being less patient, more impulsive, and most importantly, having a shaky self - concept. We are conditioned to reach out for the 'quick fix’, to 'blame it on the brain’ as I call it, instead of actually putting in long term, consistent hard work to change thought patterns, lifestyle choices and take more control over our lives. 

Our instant culture wants you to reach for that extra piece of burger, to put off that assignment for a Netflix session even if it comes at the cost of damaging how you feel about yourself. 

None of us are victims, but we sure can be made to feel so. 

The change is here but it takes time. It takes time to change a society, to change a way of living, to change your ‘normal’. If a global pandemic can force you to change your routine, you can also allow a mental ‘illness’ to change your perspective. To change how you view your world, your worth and your thoughts. 

Every breakdown is a breakthrough. Either to something better or to something worse. It all depends on your mind. 

If you want to learn more about neuroplasticity and controlling one’s thought life, you can read Dr. Caroline Leaf’s Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking and Health.