Is knowledge enough to help?

Does knowledge always have the answer?

Is knowledge instinctive or learned? 

In a way its both. When we are born, we dont know things like 2x2=4, but we do know how to breath, and the instinctual knowledge of how to gain sustenance to survive. 

Its difficult to seperate the two points. Some people say how amazing they are with the knowledge they’ve gained, and yet someone who has not had any training may also achieve the same goals. 

But how is this knowledge relevant when someone is unwell? 

Knowledge can help lead a person down the path to insight, and relief, but in some cases, it can become a blockage to healing. 

There are many times in our life where the facts from a text book are enough to get us through. 

For example, if someone comes out in a rash after eating egg, it can be diagnosed that there is an egg allergy, even a blood test can prove this.

Unfortunately, mental illness is not as simple as that. 

There is no blood test or brain scan that can accurately provide the ‘knowledge’ needed to prove the illness exists.

This is where we need to rely on more than scientific evidence. Intuition. Understanding.

Sometimes it can be as easy as talking to someone for half an hour, listening to them, to gain the information needed to diagnose depression, or any form of mental illness. 

Sometimes people can be a bit harder to read, to understand. 

There was a lovely girl in hospital at the same time i was there, who had been struggling for years. The drs kept changing her diagnosis. First of all it was autism, then it was borderline personality disorder, ocd, depression, anxiety, bipolar, and then finally, after a full on psychotic episode she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. 

It took an extreme and scary symptom of her illness to occure, to finally place the right information needed to help her.

Then, someone like me, at first seemed simple. Post natal depression. Take some antidepressants, maybe a bit of psychotherapy, and all will be ok.

That was over 11 years ago now. I am still severely unwell. I have tried all treatments and therapies possible, even quite extreme ones, all to no avail. To the drs, my illness is a mystery. I have sought out knowledge from many different specialists, but i am still the same. Severely unwell. 

We most often rely on facts, and some of the time thats the right thing to do. 

But sometimes we need to think outside the box. Outside the book, in a way. 

As humans, we need to use a combination of facts, skills, insight, intuition, open minds, listening ears, thoughts and emotions, to have any chance of making it through life.

Just becasue a teacher says you will not succeed, doesn’t mean you cannot achieve greatness. 

Just because a dr says this medication will or will not work, doesnt make it true.

And just because you are diagnosed with mental illness, doesn’t mean your life is forever ruined.

We are all individual, and no knowledge could ever successfully cover everything in the world ever thought or lived. 

Sometimes the drs, therapists, friends, family, even ourselves, can get it right, 

but sometimes we can get it wrong. 

Dont settle with just one thought, one conclusion, one belief. 

Explore, research, think, imagine, ask. 

We can build our own knowledge. 

If you have been told you have a mental illness, that shouldnt place you in a box, or behind a certain line. 

As I said earlier, everybody is different. 

Thoughts, feelings, symptoms, treatments, responses, etc are all unique.

Knowledge is important, but remember, there is more to life than what has been dictated by a book. A definition in a dictionary does not make you who you are. 

Take a moment to focus on yourself. 

Look at you. 

Not what others say about you. 

But what you see. 

Remembering that we are often clouded in our thinking due to illness, we may not get it right at first, but we need to start somewhere. 

Start from inside yourself, then move forward. 

Seek more information. As you seek, you gain knowledge, that is relevant to you.

You may be surprised by what you find.

Keep thinking, keep asking for advice, for help. Keep searching.

Remember: you are the only person who truly knows you. 

Thankyou for reading again everybody. Stick with me, I’m slowly getting the hang of it again!

If you have any thoughts, comments, questions, please do, I would love to hear from you!