Mental Illness — Who is Actually Sick?

We live in a world of increasing mental instability. In the past decade alone the number of young people suffering from mental illness has increased by at least 50%, depending on which country you’re in and what demographics you look at. But I don’t want to get stuck on the statistics, I think we can all feel that this is the case. The more interesting question is — what is going on?

For me the answer is becoming obvious. Children are being born into and educated by an outdated system that is collapsing around them. They can feel this in every cell of their being, yet we ask them to become functional and productive members within it.

When a part of them rebels and refuses to be a part of the madness we label them as mentally ill. It really begs the question — who is actually sick? Is it the young person with the inherent knowing that the system is broken, or is it the one who can shrug off this deep inner knowing and become a ‘successful’ cog in said system?

There is a part of me that wants to say to the ‘mentally ill’ youth of today — thank you. You are not broken. You are actually some of the sanest amongst us.

Don’t get me wrong here, this is not to take mental illness lightly or suggest it’s a positive for those suffering from the (often) immensely incapacitating impacts of its weight. But what if…