A big factor in mental health

My personal experience with a number of mentally ill people -with

no detectable organic brain damage - is that their  own COGNITION -the

way they perceive the world, their general UNDERSTANDING of reality -

is a big factor in determining whether there is any light at the end

of their very dark tunnels.

     When nothing can get them out of their chronic  self-absorption,

not only can we be sure they are hopeless cases but we must we must

guard  against the contagion factor.  If there is such a thing as a

" contact high ", there is also a " contact low ". The mentally ill


are expert at poisoning the  mental atmosphere of " healthy " people

who do not share their torments.



         When they get religion it often only makes  them even more

insufferable. It does not liberate their souls but  makes them even

more a prisoner of the sick ego. If you can seriously believe that the

Supreme Being is listening with the greatest attention to your everyday

whining,  your  religious fanaticism will only intensify.


    Today organized religion has become   an exploiter  of private

lunacy. I could describe this process in detail in the case of a family

member. But  what if a skeptical psychiatrist   - knowing that a patient's

religion is part of the problem not the solution- dares not challenge

it for fear of the social consequences ?


      Is there any drug out there that can actually free such people

from religious MADNESS ?   My relative's " reality " is God and himself

and his immediate family ( he is divorced )- everything else in the vast

universe - which beckoned someone like Einstein as a liberation- is

peripheral matter.

    " Get out of yourself ! " How often do we hear that sage advice.?

   It is still good advice for the mentally ill. But we must provide

them with a compass and a map.