Often lack of empathy is just a lack of imagination…

First posted on Beyond Meds Facebook page:

Why is it so very difficult for people to understand that what works for them…what they swear by…may not be appropriate for everyone? It is perhaps this desire to make every idiosyncratic thing that works for us into a universal dictate that is the root of all war and conflict. I suppose it’s a form of narcissism…but it’s also a deep incapacity to empathize with that which one is not familiar with.

Sometimes I think that lack of empathy is just a lack of imagination.

There are as many paths as there are human beings. The only one who can appropriately determine that path is the individual. We need each other, no doubt, though the only way people can find themselves is to make their own choices and their own mistakes. Respecting our differences is vitally important. Sometimes that means letting people go or having to leave. So be it.

A few posts written about how we’re all different on Beyond Meds:

• To my friends and readers who still take psych drugs (and to the whole spectrum of folks on and off meds too)

• healing journey

• Part 2, healing journey: Attn: mental health professionals of all stripes

• There is a path for every one of us. And we’re all different.