Tag: psychotherapy

Depression and cultural alienation with Andrarchy

Andrarchy explains why his experience with depression was less about mental illness and more about alienation

Transcript:

I don’t think I had a disease called “depression”; I think that my mind was conflicting with what is socially acceptable for a mind. I was having difficulty integrating with society. And because I was having beliefs and ideas that were different than everybody else’s, that created discomfort and sadness in me that was difficult to resolve because there was nobody there to guide me through the experience.

I do believe that there is a place for therapists – whether they’re psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, whatever – I do believe there’s a place, because if somebody had been there to say “this is normal” – not just “this is normal”, because they do say that – but if they were to explain to me, basically, “hey, society is a construct; it’s a set of delusions we all kind of agree on so we can function, so we can go to the store and make sure there’s shit there – we share these beliefs, not necessarily because they’re true, but because they enable us to form stable societies. Just because you don’t see them as true, doesn’t mean you’re broken.”

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Watch and listen to the full interview here.

Mental Illness Outsiders – The Andrarchy Show Episode 5

The Story: Mental health, isolation and reason

When you see a homeless mentally ill person doing something unusual on the street, you might do as most people do, and ignore them. Have you ever thought about why they’re on a street corner barking? Maybe they weren’t always like that, but over the years, their desperate attempts to get anything resembling affection – attention, acknowledgement – lead them to stranger and stranger behaviours.

If you’ve ever had an experience with mental illness, you might have noticed that your thoughts can quickly carry you away, getting you to places full of anxiety, dread, hopelessness and even delusion. There are mental tools that we can use to help us gain control of our minds and our lives. Meditation is one of them, and so is logic. Being able to look at our thoughts and analyse them a little more objectively can help ground us.

In this episode, Andrew “Andrarchy” Levine interviews Kurt about mental illness among homeless people, and about the role of reason in stabilising your own mind.

The Eps:

The Andrarchy Show Episode 1

The Andrarchy Show Episode 2

The Andrarchy Show Episode 4

The Links:

Andrarchy’s post of the episode

Why being ostracized hurts more than bullying

The thing we fear more than death

Do we see reality as it is?

Andrarchy on Steemit

Homelessness, being ignored, acting crazy and the power of humanity

Mental illness and what to learn from your mind breaking

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

A Psychotic Break or Shamanic Awakening?: The Andrarchy Show Episode 2

The Story: Is it mental illness or a spiritual experience?

If we take the psychiatric industry’s model of mental illness, we might be inclined to believe that these experiences are purely negative. But if we go too far the other way, speaking of neurodiversity, spiritual awakenings or shamanic experiences, we might be tempted into thinking that these experiences are wholly positive. It’s true that these experiences may involve a lot of suffering for the people whom they affect directly, and the people around them – however, it’s also true that people can learn a lot from these experiences, about themselves and the nature of the world they live in.

This is part 2 of Andrew “andrarchy” Levine’s interview with Kurt about having a psychotic break, or spiritual awakening. We discuss the terms used to describe these experiences, the change from linear to conceptual thinking that went on in Kurt’s brain, and possible explanations of what caused this spontaneous change from psychiatric and yogic perspectives.

The Eps:

Mental illness and hamanic experiences: The Andrarchy Show episode 1

The Links:

Andrarchy on Steemit

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.