Guest guest Posted May 26, 1999 Report Share Posted May 26, 1999 Dear David: Thank you for your thoughtful response to my postings. You asked how we could empower the mentally ill, and then suggested that we look 'through' the illness into the heart of divinity. I agree that we must realize that the heart of divinity does indeed lie within all. But how should this cause us to act toward the mentally ill? For convenience, I will use the male pronoun. Mental illness is mainly a result of learned self-rejection. So the key is to get the spiritually sick person to unlearn "wrong" things and learn to accept himself again. Here are several of my own suggestions (not all of which may be appropriate in every situation) that may help to lessen the suffering of the mentally ill: - suggest that he consider the possibility that he has chosen his life (which has admittedly entailed suffering, up to this point) in order to teach compassion and love to others (this can impart a healing sense of divine purpose) - encourage him to examine his early life influences (family-of-origin) for ways in which his primary caregivers may have caused him to turn against himself (i.e., remind him that he was not born sick) - encourage him to be self-compassionate by feeling and releasing his own entrapped pain and grief (i.e., encourage him to fully realize that he did not deserve to suffer) - treat him with the respect due to one who has come, at great personal pain, to teach us compassion by giving us the opportunity to love him and hence help us reveal our own divinity - support other like-minded groups such as NAMI (nami.org) that work toward removing the societal stigma of mental illness. I would really like to hear other suggestions. Thank you Rob http://www.go.com ______ ____ Get your Free GO Network Email address at http://mail.go.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 26, 1999 Report Share Posted May 26, 1999 Rob Rinne wrote: > I would really like to hear other suggestions. That illness teaches and the mentally ill person is learning things that the average person may never know. andrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 27, 1999 Report Share Posted May 27, 1999 andrew macnab wrote: > Rob Rinne wrote: > > > I would really like to hear other suggestions. > > That illness teaches and the mentally ill person is learning things that the average person may never know. Who among us may never know love? Perhaps to think ones' knowing is special is just as isolating as believing one is deficient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 27, 1999 Report Share Posted May 27, 1999 David Bozzi wrote: > David Bozzi <david.bozzi > > andrew macnab wrote: > > > > That illness teaches and the mentally ill person is learning things that the average person may never know. > > Who among us may never know love? > Perhaps to think ones' knowing is special is just as isolating as believing one is deficient. That illness(if it must be labeled such) is a teacher and there is value in the experience. andrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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