It’s one of the greatest philosophical debates in the world, and THE fundamental question in the mental health field: Is mental illness a hardware problem (faulty wiring), or a software problem (running faulty programming?)
In the first instance, there is no cure except drugs, which is not really a cure because when you take the drugs away the problem resurfaces. Therefore, it is more accurate to call it a “symptom-management system.”
In the second instance, there is a cure in the sense that the individual can re-wire, or re-program their brains. I know, because I’ve done it.
Decades ago, when faced with this question, I made a conscious choice to look at mental illness as a software problem; and in this way put the power of healing into my own hands. Yes I had help, lots of it, but fundamentally my mission was driven by the belief that I alone held my fate in my hands, and that it was up to me to get balanced enough to determine that fate.
I’m not saying that I have the much sought-after answer to mental illness; I only know what worked for me. All I can say is that my view is based on my own lived experience, not theories in books written in large part by people who have never had any first-hand experience with mental illness.
For me the question came down to this: which view empowers me to take appropriate action to heal myself, and which one allows me to remain a passive victim? For me, this decision was an easy one, because I was committed to using my life as an experiment to either come out the other side of suicidal depression, or die trying. There simply was no alternative.
We are funny beings, so anxious to give the control over ourselves to “professionals”, while not taking the helm ourselves. Is it our laziness, or just lack of knowledge about what we can do for ourselves?