STABILISE

Disclaimer: It is important to note that STABILISE is a work in progress operated by an educated woman with lived experience with bipolar disorder and computer scientists interested in improving access to practical knowledge, medical professionals, and crisis responders. We are building a mobile application that is designed to track moods and analyse text so help can be provided sooner. For medical advice, please consult your family doctor or a trusted health care practitioner. If you believe you are in need of immediate medical assistance and live in North America, call 911. Otherwise, please reach out to the Lifeline at 988 (by phone or text).

Tag: Freedom

  • On Shifting Paradigms

    Yesterday, I came across Thomas Szasz’s 1960 essay, The Myth of Mental Illness, which struck me as one of the most profound papers I have ever had the good fortune to read.

    In his essay, Szasz asks a profound question:

    Do you have a mental illness or do you have a problem with living?

    At the risk of sounding foolish, I had not considered that line of inquiry until I read his work.

    As I sift through Threads, I notice how many users are struggling with mental health concerns. One user went so far as to say that being diagnosed with a mental illness felt like the end of the world.

    I can relate.

    When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, it felt as though I had been negated by its symptoms. Suddenly, my passion became mania and my sadness became depression. I felt labeled, misunderstood, and also a perverse sense of satisfaction that I could finally name what was happening in my mind.

    Reading Szasz’s essay reminds me that I have the freedom to shift my emotional and mental paradigms. He encourages me to think about how being diagnosed with a mental illness can cause the one who has received the diagnosis to form a mental and emotional construct defined by the DSM-V.

    This construct alone is reductive and simplistic.

    When he writes there are “stresses and strains inherent in the social intercourse of complex human personalities,” Szasz is elucidating on the concept that living among other human beings is hard. Maybe not is, but can be understood as such.

    Szasz goes on to write, “the concept of illness, whether bodily or mental, implies deviation from some clearly defined norm.” The question that follows: Who defines the norm?

    I don’t have any answers at the moment. I just appreciate how he presents fascinating questions that encourage continued thought and research.

  • On Waking Up at Dawn

    I woke up at 4:55AM.

    I woke up and decided not to fight my body’s desire to be awake.

    Life has been shifting rather quickly.

    Somebody on social media told me, “Trust the process.”

    So I did.

    I trusted that I may not know better than time or the people who exist in the world.

    I listened to Richard Dawkins. I worked at the library. I learned the value of intellectual freedom.

    We do not all need to be the same in order to connect deeply.

    There is a strong misconception that people need to be the same, that when we argue a point, we are trying to convert others.

    I don’t believe that is the case.

    People are consistently and predominantly allowed to be exactly who they are.

    That’s the greatness of living in a democratic country. Each view counts.

    But there are also those instances when people need to be called into account, ie. Jim Keegstra. He was a school teacher and former mayor of Eckville who taught his students antisemitism. He was convicted and lost his esteemed positions in society.

    Sometimes it is the duty of the court to cast a line and catch those who cause destruction to run rampant.

    This began as a celebration of waking up. It will end as a shout into the void: Be yourself, but recognize that you are a consistently evolving entity whose identity is not restricted or contained. Don’t be afraid to let your views change.