Psychosis or Spiritual Awakening: Phil Borges at TEDxUMKC

I wonder how my life might have been without stigma? What if psychotropic medications were not used to suppress symptoms, instead nourished to accept and utilize symptoms for a greater purpose in life? What if western culture accepted people’s differences rather than forceing everyone to be as they are? Native Americans were labeled savages while godly settlers tried to make Native Americans respectable god fearing examples of chrisitian reform.

i wish I knew how other people thought in comparison to my thoughts and ideas. Expereincing psychosis on 3 separate occasions my mind was completely wiped free of all memories and acquired abilities. I mirrored family members and later my wife to relearn decision making, how to feed myself and when to drink from a glass.

In New York, where I live expectations are low for people with mental illness. I took advantage of the Ticket to Work program that paid for books and tuition. I also won the Pathways Scholarship for non-traditional students attending college for the first time. Surprisingly I found out I was smart, I graduted with honors, and a member of Phi Theta Kappa.

I don’t know if society were to change its view on mental illness by fostering individual gifts and abilities and allow people to sort things out naturally rather than suppressing feelings and emotions with drugs and foreign chemicals. The problem is nobody has the time to let nature heal itself so the remedy at hand is suppress the symptoms. This way pharmaceuticals are assured of long-term dependence and because healing does not take place symptoms return until the drug is no longer affective but easily replaced by another dependency.
 
Oh Ed. I have not witnessed your life…but feel your sadness. My brother had mental illness that declared itself with a vengeance when he was 42. And now my son. My brother has passed away…but he was ever so relieved when he finally was prescribed medication that kept him from cycling, but did not gork him. That was after some years of terrible medications and hospitalizations. My son…who is now 44 and currently living with me thinks he is perfectly fine. He refuses to see any healthcare professional…or take any medications. Last year he totally destroyed a home I had purchased for him to live in…because I can not stand the thought of him starving and homeless. I will have to return him to his environment soon. I hope he is healthy enough to survive another year. Wish him luck…he is pretty happy in his own head.
 

I was a peer support specialist at a 38 bed single occupancy facility for 8 years. Some residents were downright mean, resisting authority at every opportunity. Laws designed to protect disabled people did little to protect staff from resident abuse.

I would not go long without medication, but what if mental illness was not defined as a sickness, but as a gift and privileged?
 
I ‘m sorry for all the excess suffering you have endured. It sometimes feels like life has thrown us a curve ball that’s too hard to handle. Unfortunately I don’t have any solutions

If mental illness was defined as a gift then a lot of people ‘might’ not get the help they need.

People with schizophrenia often think they are communicating directly with God and do terrible things.

People with bipolar can get naturally high and stay up for days with excess energy which can get them into a lot of trouble so there ARE logical reasons why illnesses are defined as illnesses and nit gifts.

That’s not to say that people with mental illness aren’t gifted since many of them are.
 
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The medical profession so often get things wrong. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia but I'm actually psychic. Fortunately, I already knew that before I was referred to a mental health clinic with a different problem. I only went once, I wasn't impressed by them at all.
 


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