Lessons from Mental Illness

11 years ago, I was hospitalized for fairly severe mental instability. It took over a year for me to feel on stable ground again, through temporary medication, and continued dedication to sobriety and Vipassana meditation. Going through severe mental illness is unpleasant. But it also offered unique life lessons. One such impactful lesson is the power of our minds to warp reality.

At the height of my illness, I held highly negative, delusional, dysfunctional, and paranoid views of the world and my relationships. Through my recovery, I was better able to create much-needed space around those perspectives, questioning them and better understanding my mind's capability to create and manipulate narratives.

Those who have never experienced or considered themselves "mentally ill" often miss such self-reflection. Through experiences, our perspectives are built, often with rigid borders defining ourselves and others. Those rigid definitions ultimately define our thoughts and guide our actions. From rigid perspectives come narratives that, in turn, are the basis for all personal, interpersonal, and international conflict.

I feel the power of these narratives particularly in this moment. A recent post I created critiquing the treatment of political prisoners in Iran was misunderstood by some, and as a result, they formed a perspective. In such cases, perspectives become so rigid that any explanation is met with distrust. It's natural, and yet wrong and hurtful. Still, this is a micro-example of what occurs daily in smaller or bigger forms.

I'm grateful that my experiences have helped me gain pause in judgment. Some space remains to step back and ask: Am I seeing this fully? Do I know enough to judge? Is there anything I may be missing?

I wish for us all to value a deeper understanding, have humility in our certainty, and flexibility in our judgments.

Wishing you well,

Naser