Being labeled mentally ill creates a double bind

This is what psych drugs did to me: they operated as a chemical strait-jacket for all the years of wounding that brought about emotional collapse.

Then, when the drugs were removed, not only was the chemical strait-jacket removed, but they’d destroyed all natural capacities to cope. In this way the psych drugs had gravely exacerbated the original problem which was simply gross neglect since birth.

(2026: the psych drugs made underlying infections far worse and created tardive dyskinesia, a serious brain injury caused by the drugs)

In this world of violent conditioning of the self we’re all emotionally abused. Some of us have bodies that are more sensitive than others.

When people are sensitive and they get labeled mentally ill…the force of all of society believing people are sick and wrong is projected onto us.

If we don’t come to understand the actual toxic force of this it will kill us. That is the tragic truth. And it’s no small thing to do that. When all of society projects the belief that ugly, intractable uncontrollable forces are making us sick…well, no surprise…we get sick…

To allow that toxicity to flow through us once the label of mentally illness is given, is again, no small thing. Most of us cannot do it.

Tricky part is that adamantly refusing the label (aggressively denying our differences) is also problematic.

Attachment/aversion issue: Two sides of the same coin to actively fight against the label or to totally accept it. We must flow with both sides to see clearly. Stepping outside of the dualism of the whole conundrum…otherwise we are buffeted to and fro.

this is the double bind writ large unto our bodies…

(update 2026: A double bind is a paradoxical dilemma where an individual receives two or more conflicting messages, creating a “no-win” situation. Because the demands contradict each other and leaving the situation isn’t an option, any response the individual chooses will cause problems)

Becoming conscious of all this stuff, can in the short term, actually put us at greater risk, not less.

There is no safety…there is only the law of the jungle and we’re in it…surrender to the jungle. The jungle will then hold us like a mama…

Dance in the jungle like every other animal…we’ve forgotten the dance of the animal…

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This was (mostly) inspired by my grappling with the death of Michael Stone, Buddhist Teacher. 

 

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