The problem with mental health problems is we see everything as a problem.
What if we asked ourselves: ‘where does this idea come from?’ and ‘why do I believe it?’
The idea that mental illness, or more accurately – mental disorder, is a ‘health problem’ is a relatively new and essentially European story.
In the mid-17th century, Europeans began to institutionalise their mad people. Rationality was the new reality and we were seen as being irrational or ‘without reason’. As society became orderly we were seen as ‘disordered’.
We became ‘ill’ when doctors took advantage of our collective confinement and turned our interesting relationship with reality into a symptom of a medical condition. This conveniently endorsed our separation from others.
The story of our disorder and illness continues to echo through the centuries. It’s in the names we call each other on the school playground, in the news reports in TV and papers, in the movies we watch, and in our conversations.
We’ve made the human experience of irrationality or madness the worst thing that can happen. And if it does, we’re taught to see it as a health problem to be fixed, an illness we should want to ideally cure or at least manage.
What if we could create a different story?
Let’s start seeing madness as legitimately human rather than ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’.
The same science that called our experiences ‘abnormal’ hundreds of years ago is now discovering that half of us will have these experiences in our life.
Madness is the new normal.
And perhaps as we start seeing madness as a normal we can begin telling a more balanced story. One that allows for the challenges and difficulties of irrationality to sit alongside the positives – a story of enhanced sensitivity, epiphanic insights, intuitive creativity, profound personal relationships and an essential and valued perspective on humanity.
Madness is the new reality. A reality enhanced by madness.
An augmented reality.
Gareth is a singer-songwriter who puts his heart where his mouth is.
Setting the experience of mental illness to music is not a common theme for art.
However in this case Augmented Reality sets out to describe very serious issues in a way most people can understand. Listening to this album takes you on a journey of hard times mainly through a resolution of hope. The album sets out to challenge some of the stigma and discrimination towards mental illness. When I was not feeling well, it really spoke to me, I listened to it over and over again and it really helped.
Gareth makes a very strong statement that after experiencing acute mental illness you can survive the journey and there is a better, more fulfilled life on the other side.
Perhaps a richer life with a deeper understanding of humanity.
Augmented Reality teaches and enlightens, while entertaining listeners and deserves a wider audience.
Review by Johnny Matteson – The Mad Musician