The poet pares away
all unnecessary words and images to leave a clear vision of the essence of
life.
(Andrew Juniper)
Misdiagnosis
The problem with mental health is that it is not an exact science.
The human body is not simply flesh and bones, nor is the human mind just
conscious and subconscious.
Both are vastly more complex than that.
Medicine is still in its infancy.
The risk of misdiagnosis is high. The doctor is required to match the
symptoms with known conditions...
Herein lies the problem.
Little boxes
Trying to put the human mind into little boxes is inherently foolish.
Everything is connected. Reality is incredibly
complex.
You may have symptoms that sound like autism, dyslexia,
obsessive-compulsive disorder or rare forms of migraine.
But do you have those conditions at all?
A touch too much
Heightened sensory awareness is unpleasant.
Imagine having the bright sun in your eyes but you cannot shield them.
Now consider what it is like when the TV volume is turned up too loud.
Add to this the vibration and grating feeling produced by a building site -
the pneumatic drill, the hammering, the heavy thud of concrete being
dropped.
Remember when somebody wears too much perfume or there is an odour so
pungent that it makes you want to hold your nose closed?
Have you ever touched something and the oddness of the texture makes your
skin crawl?
Like fingernails scraped down a blackboard.
These factors may describe what
heightened sensory awareness feels like, but the words are not
the thing.
The reality cannot be expressed, only experienced.
Heightened sensory awareness makes your body and mind raw. You are
exceptionally sensitive to things.
Photophobia, phonophobia, osmophobia are all potential problems.
But is this low latent inhibition, or something else?
Contrast
Wallpaper, paving stones and clothing with repeated pattern motifs may be a
real problem.
Is this a symptom of low latent inhibition, heightened sensory awareness
or of something else?
It may be migraine-related.
How do you know? How can you tell?
Autism
You may possess behavioural traits that are usually associated with autism:
Very independent for his/her age
Does things 'early' compared to other children
Seems to be in his/her 'own world'
Seems to tune people out
Spends a lot of time lining things up or putting things in a certain order
Dislikes playing pretend/being phoney/lying
Extremely articulate/communicative
Highly-developed imagination
Do you have to remove the labels from all your clothing because they irritate the skin?
Can you hear the buzzing of light fittings and other electrical devices?
Are you autistic?
Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD)
You may possess behavioural traits that are usually associated with OCD:
Highly organised
Develops compulsive patterns
Creation of routines
Repetitive acts
Personal rules
Perfectionism
Meticulous
Methodical
Obsessive-seeming fixations
Organise events in order to minimise the risk of adverse outcome
It is hard to put things off or ignore incomplete tasks
Are you obsessive-compulsive?
What is it?
There is an Indian folk tale about six blind men inspecting an elephant:
The first man encounters the side of the animal and believes it to be a wall.
The second man imagines the tusk to be a spear.
The third man thinks that the trunk is a snake.
The fourth man considers the leg to be a tree.
The fifth man feels an ear and believes it to be a fan.
The sixth man finds the tail and is certain it is a rope.
You may have symptoms common to autism, OCD, dyslexia, migraine, LLI etc - yet none of the
predominant traits associated with those conditions.
These symptoms may be parts of something larger, deeper, more pervasive.
Who can say?
Not everything can be broken up into separate parts. Not everything can be
examined piecemeal.
Not knowing
The danger with diagnosis is that it can over-simplify
things.
The doctor needs to narrow the options, to pin things down. That way, a
treatment can be suggested.
Taoism recognises that reality is not like that.
You may not find a definitive understanding. Quite often the only viable
answer is: I don't know.
Do not accept the first diagnosis that comes your way. Do not assume that a
diagnosis can be found.
Labelling a problem is not the same as understanding the problem.
There may not be an answer.
Page created 24 February 2001