It has been said many times that a little knowledge is dangerous. Nowhere does this scare me more than in the field of mental health. We are learning more and more every day, breaking through walls every day, yet this only exposes how little we truly know. True disaster could come from thinking we have got it all figured out (or even mostly figured out).
One of my favorite quotes is from a girl i spent time with in college. She said "if the human mind was simple enough to understand, we would be too simple to understand it".
As a society we are constantly adding subdivisions to our categories of mental attributes. Autism is now further divided up with new gradations including Aspergers. Mental retardation, genius, gifted, savant, the division of categories are constantly being increased as we identify the latest biological causalities of each possible rating. Getting overly focused on the individual gears i fear we are losing perspective in regards to the machine itself.
i am not going to get caught up debating predictions or speculations surrounding possibilities of altering genes in the future to dictate attributes or 'heal' perceived mental ailments. i am concern with what is actually happening now. i am filled with Einstein's fear of our technology growing faster than our humanity. Are our consciences keeping up with our technological discoveries?
Some people may claim that all this coding of individuals is creating crutches and excuses allowing people to justify their behavior rather than dealing with personal issues. My fear comes from the other side of possibility: what is we so frequently treat and explain away behavior that truly original and unique thoughts and ideas become progressively more and more rare?
i have struggled with depression for as long as i can remember. As a result i have developed mechanisms and outlets for dealing with it over the years. Had this significant personality trait been simply viewed as a chemical reaction to be balanced with pills i am sure that my life would have been different, and more so, i would be different. Would i have learned to play a musical instrument and have connected with other people as we created? Would i have developed the level of empathy for life that i have which has directly resulted in my decision to be a vegetarian and which has also strongly steered my career paths? Would i have gotten into poetry and would i still write books worth of it every year? Art, drawing, skateboarding all outlets for my depression, would i have done any of these things had i been medicated? If medicated would i be fulfilled or would i have just FELT happy?
Now i'm not making any Earth shattering contributions as a result of what some may call a condition, but i happen to be very grateful for my pathetic little life. In contrast, most (if not all) of the historically significant contributors to our society would have been diagnosed with one of many syndromes or ailments today. What if they had been 'treated', or worse, dismissed?
Eventually we will figure out the chemical or neurological cause of every difference in human beings, but then what? What do you do with that information? Our diversity is our strongest attribute as a species. It, and not any physical prowess, has lead us to where we are and helped us survive. My fear is not the struggles with depression, my fear is the great possibilities that we could be missing if we 'treat' everything, if we categorize everything? Then who will we be?
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