Mental Illness or Psychospiritual Crisis?

Busy couple of days again--blah, blah, blah.

But here's a link through my friend over at Integral Options Cafe that takes a different look at mental illness and spirituality. Quite radical in some respects, but I think the author has interesting things to say.

I believe there are pivotal times in our lives when our spirit must evolve. Unfortunately, our culture doesn't have any framework for this, no way to define the experience. Sadly, many are labeled mentally unbalanced or mentally "ill," or they're simply numbed out on prescription drugs.

But what if each of us was allowed to go through this spiritual emergency and come out the other side? The author intentionally uses "emergency"--not in the sense we usually think, however. Take off a few letters and you have "emerge."

Here are a few experiences that our culture holds suspect but which the author says can be beneficial:

1. Shamanic crisis
2. Kundalini awakening
3. Peak experiences
4. Return to the center
5. Psychic openings
6. Past-life experiences
7. Communications with spirit guides and channeling
8. Near-death experiences
9. UFO encounters/alien abduction experiences
10. Possession
11. Alcoholism & drug addiction

As I read the article, I realized that I have experienced one or two of these, a peak experience I had in Mexico and what seems like a kundalini awakening. I've been trying to come to terms with what it all means over the last several years. The author's point is that if we don't have resources to deal with these experiences, these emergencies, they can become self-destructive--and they don't have to be.

The author also does not ignore true mental illness, and he doesn't necessarily say these experiences are "real." He does however believe that these experiences form and change us, and he addresses the plight of those millions of people out there who could live much more fulfilling lives if their experiences were acknowledged as having value and somehow safely integrated into their being.

Last week, I had a routine physical, and everything went well. However, my physician knows me and my partner personally, and so I talked about some of the challenges we've been having. I've been a little concerned about moments of high blood pressure, but all the tests check out fine. The doc says it's probably stress-related but he didn't see any evidence of a chronic problem. So then he suggests anti-depressants. This really bothered me and concerned me. I know these drugs help many people, but he was so quick to suggest it, even talked about it at length as if there were few remaining options for me.

If I felt I was in some danger, I would consider drugs--but doesn't it seem that's everyone's default solution? Just get a prescription, and you'll be fine. I disagree. It must be a case by case basis, but I think that drugs sometimes dull the pain and prevents us from ever processing what we're going through. Without drugs, it might be messy and painful, but isn't that just life? Drugs are a way to give us false control, and maybe, sometimes, we can only grow by surrendering to the chaos.