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Madness is Real
Dec. 20th, 2012 05:15 pmPublic Service Announcement: Madness is real.
There have been times in my life when I have been misdiagnosed as depressed, even though I wasn't depressed and just had hay fever.
There have been times in my life when I was not diagnosed as depressed, when I definitely was.
Sometimes, we get diagnoses wrong, and we think somebody has the flu and it turns out it's cancer, or we operate to replace a knee that might have done better with some physical therapy. Sometimes, in a simple outpatient procedure, somebody never wakes up from anaesthesia. Other times, somebody dies because he didn't get a cavity drilled and he wound up with a blood infection. Medicine is like that. Bodies are complicated.
Brains are just like the rest of our bodies. Sometimes, a blood vessel is compressed and part of your brain goes to sleep, just like your leg. Sometimes, part of a brain flat out doesn't work, just like some people have lazy eyes or just one arm, just like some people have asthma and heart murmurs.
Are they still people? Yes.
Are their bodies perfect in the eyes of God? Yes.
Do they struggle with their limitations and sometimes overcome them? They do.
Do they struggle with their limitations and sometimes need tremendous amounts of care that place a huge financial and emotional burden on an entire family and circle of friends? That happens too.
Brains are body parts. Sometimes, body parts don't work. Sometimes, even though you love someone, and think they are perfect in the eyes of God, you are exhausted by taking care of them. Sometimes, even though you are perfect in the eyes of God, you are exhausted by taking care of yourself. And sometimes, because you are not God, you make a mistake about how much care somebody needs.
Those mistakes don't mean madness isn't real, any more than catching the wrong bus means buses don't exist.
Sometimes, bodies go wrong. Sometimes, brains go wrong. It would be nice if we could say why, but we are not God, and the existence of even a compromised life is a miracle. What is amazing is how often we are not mad, and how often people are kind to us when we are.
There have been times in my life when I have been misdiagnosed as depressed, even though I wasn't depressed and just had hay fever.
There have been times in my life when I was not diagnosed as depressed, when I definitely was.
Sometimes, we get diagnoses wrong, and we think somebody has the flu and it turns out it's cancer, or we operate to replace a knee that might have done better with some physical therapy. Sometimes, in a simple outpatient procedure, somebody never wakes up from anaesthesia. Other times, somebody dies because he didn't get a cavity drilled and he wound up with a blood infection. Medicine is like that. Bodies are complicated.
Brains are just like the rest of our bodies. Sometimes, a blood vessel is compressed and part of your brain goes to sleep, just like your leg. Sometimes, part of a brain flat out doesn't work, just like some people have lazy eyes or just one arm, just like some people have asthma and heart murmurs.
Are they still people? Yes.
Are their bodies perfect in the eyes of God? Yes.
Do they struggle with their limitations and sometimes overcome them? They do.
Do they struggle with their limitations and sometimes need tremendous amounts of care that place a huge financial and emotional burden on an entire family and circle of friends? That happens too.
Brains are body parts. Sometimes, body parts don't work. Sometimes, even though you love someone, and think they are perfect in the eyes of God, you are exhausted by taking care of them. Sometimes, even though you are perfect in the eyes of God, you are exhausted by taking care of yourself. And sometimes, because you are not God, you make a mistake about how much care somebody needs.
Those mistakes don't mean madness isn't real, any more than catching the wrong bus means buses don't exist.
Sometimes, bodies go wrong. Sometimes, brains go wrong. It would be nice if we could say why, but we are not God, and the existence of even a compromised life is a miracle. What is amazing is how often we are not mad, and how often people are kind to us when we are.
