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I was recently watching Alexander Avila's video about autism and self diagnosis (great watch, I really recommend) and I think it really changed my perspective on a lot of things. Not that I wasn't already pro informed self diagnosis, but having it explained in so much detail has made me become so much more critical of psychiatry as an institution.
A while ago I was watching an interview by Will Wood, one of my favorite singers, and during his discussion of his song "Marsha thankk you for the dialectics, but I need you to leave" he said something that at the time made me uncomfortable because I had an instinctive "that can't be right" reaction, but having watched Avila's essay I've come to find it really meaningful. So I would just like to share his words:
"You've got the baby boomers who are saying 'you're just spoiled you don't know how good you've got it' and they're a bunch of fucking idiots for thinking that cause come on, man, really? What did they do back in your day when they were suffering from mental illness? They would just drink themselves to death. And nowadays at least we have a shot with these drugs and with therapy. And I know it's not perfect, because yeah, there are issues with it, it does cause a lot of problems, but it's legitimate, and it's the closest thing that we have for adressing emotional problems. So it's worth a shot, it's got value. But you also got these millenials and gen z-ers who are so convinced that mental illnesses are hard illnesses and not just helpful labels that span a spectrum of related symptoms in order to identify and adress a problem in one's mind. They're so convinced, despite there being no pathogen or brainscans, it's a subjective interpretation of themselves, but they're so convinced that it's this hard, solid thing that they're clinging to it."
I think at the time I was very afraid to accept my mental illnesses as something that isn't hard and solid, as he calls it. In hindsight, I realize that this is the same black and white thinking he was discussing in his song, but I guess it takes some of us a little time before fully getting there.
In any case, the video essay helped me make sense of a lot of things, as someone who is pretty sure I'm neurodivergent but will likely never be diagnosed. This discussion has been on my mind because I overheard some family members talking about how "everyone thinks they have adhd these days!" and it's just frustrating that the average person has these inability to understand the mental health system is broken in a lot of areas and can't be relied upon always. Not just the mental health system honestly, doctors can be really fucking ableist sometimes.
I really, really wish I could get diagnosed for the things I'm fairly certain I have so I could at least be taken seriously by the people around me.
A while ago I was watching an interview by Will Wood, one of my favorite singers, and during his discussion of his song "Marsha thankk you for the dialectics, but I need you to leave" he said something that at the time made me uncomfortable because I had an instinctive "that can't be right" reaction, but having watched Avila's essay I've come to find it really meaningful. So I would just like to share his words:
"You've got the baby boomers who are saying 'you're just spoiled you don't know how good you've got it' and they're a bunch of fucking idiots for thinking that cause come on, man, really? What did they do back in your day when they were suffering from mental illness? They would just drink themselves to death. And nowadays at least we have a shot with these drugs and with therapy. And I know it's not perfect, because yeah, there are issues with it, it does cause a lot of problems, but it's legitimate, and it's the closest thing that we have for adressing emotional problems. So it's worth a shot, it's got value. But you also got these millenials and gen z-ers who are so convinced that mental illnesses are hard illnesses and not just helpful labels that span a spectrum of related symptoms in order to identify and adress a problem in one's mind. They're so convinced, despite there being no pathogen or brainscans, it's a subjective interpretation of themselves, but they're so convinced that it's this hard, solid thing that they're clinging to it."
I think at the time I was very afraid to accept my mental illnesses as something that isn't hard and solid, as he calls it. In hindsight, I realize that this is the same black and white thinking he was discussing in his song, but I guess it takes some of us a little time before fully getting there.
In any case, the video essay helped me make sense of a lot of things, as someone who is pretty sure I'm neurodivergent but will likely never be diagnosed. This discussion has been on my mind because I overheard some family members talking about how "everyone thinks they have adhd these days!" and it's just frustrating that the average person has these inability to understand the mental health system is broken in a lot of areas and can't be relied upon always. Not just the mental health system honestly, doctors can be really fucking ableist sometimes.
I really, really wish I could get diagnosed for the things I'm fairly certain I have so I could at least be taken seriously by the people around me.
