The links between mental disorders
A few thoughts, as someone who has been deeply researching this topic for my own reasons and for several loved ones over many years (I think I first started looking up the DSM-IV in 2005).<p>- This article reveals the folly of viewing a complex system (the mind) through a mechanistic lens. We want to be able to look at the mind the way we look at a malfunctioning car (&quot;ah, the timing belt&#x27;s out&quot;) or computer (&quot;one of the memory sticks died&quot;), repair&#x2F;replace that component and expect it to carry on as &quot;normal&quot;. This can never work. The mind is an organic, emergent phenomenon, not something that has been &quot;designed&quot; to work in any &quot;normal&quot; way; it has evolved to adapt to circumstances that can change and differ dramatically for all kinds of reasons. So, trying to categorise &quot;disorders&quot; into discrete definitions with distinct &quot;causes&quot; in order to restore the mind to some &quot;normal&quot; state cannot possibly work.<p>- I realised after a few years of researching this stuff that the notion that psychiatric &quot;disorders&quot; manifest due to &quot;bad genes&quot; doesn&#x27;t make sense. The whole point of evolution is that only genes that promote survival and replication can make it through. Sure, you can get random mutations, but that doesn&#x27;t explain why so many people have the same kinds of &quot;disorders&quot;. So whatever are the genes that &quot;cause psychiatric disorders&quot; in big enough clusters that they can even be attempted to be named and described in the DSM, those genes must be there for a reason that has aided our survival - even if they have some negative aspects too (nature is all about tradeoffs after all). Realising this changed the way I view mental &quot;illness&quot;. I realised that my depression was my mind&#x27;s way of telling me that something was wrong in my life (relationships, career, physiological health) and I needed time out to examine it, understand it and correct it. Schizophrenia can be seen as an alteration of your perceptions to numb you from a stressful&#x2F;traumatic situation, a trigger of extreme creative thinking to help solve serious life problems, or a display of aberrant behaviour to signal to outsiders that you are in need of help (see studies of how often schizophrenia manifests after a period of severe stress or trauma). Bipolar can be seen as a pattern of swinging between a high energy&#x2F;creativity state in order to get important things achieved quickly, and a low-energy state for recovery.<p>- The discussion in this article seems astonishingly simplistic and naïve to anyone who has read&#x2F;heard any of the many researchers who have spent years examining mental &quot;illness&quot; from the perspective of trauma, and who have found success treating all kinds of conditions through trauma healing techniques. Such figures include Stan Grof, Ram Dass, Iain McGilchrist, Peter Levine and Gabor Maté.<p>- My own experience: I&#x27;m one of those who has fit the diagnosis for several conditions at times in my life; depression and anxiety most clearly, but also (at least mildly) bipolar, borderline PD, ADHD, some addiction. I tried all the conventional things (pharmaceuticals, mainstream psychiatric talk therapy) and didn&#x27;t get much relief. About 8 years ago I discovered unconventional approaches to subconscious trauma healing, and have undertaken these consistently ever since, and my &quot;disorders&quot; have steadily resolved. All that&#x27;s left is some latent anxiety, but that continues to improve too.