Pyschosis, Narratives, and the Human Condition: An Admittedly Less Serious Exploration Than the Title Would Suggest

I'm one of the rare possessors of that greatest of nature's gifts: Bipolar Disorder. Even to say it's name evokes feelings of shame, as if it is some major defect of birth that destines me for the gutter. But in the time since being diagnosed I've found it to (non-ironically) be one of my favorite parts of who I am. But this post isn't just me trying to argue that what most people view as a huge obstacle to happiness is actually a huge asset (that shameless post will come later). Instead, I want to focus on one of the most interesting aspects of Bipolar: pyschosis.

Bipolar is one of the few psychotic spectrum disorders, along with schizophrenia (which I'm given to believe is no longer even a thing and has now been split into several smaller classifications), and several others. But what does it mean to experience psychosis?

When we think of psychosis we are flooded with depictions of mentally unstable people acting in scary, violent, and dangerous ways (thank you Michael Myers for firmly entrenching this trope). But in reality psychosis is generally far less terrifying except to the person experiencing it.

So what is psychosis? Good question, astute reader. Pyschosis is a state of disconnection with reality which is generally typified by delusions and hallucinations. Basically, you think things that contradict evidence or you experience things with your senses that aren't actually there. The easiest way for me to describe the experience is that it is like watching a Christopher Nolan movie and you're disoriented and confused but it turns out to be your real life.

There is still a lot of debate about what causes psychosis, but I will offer a potential explanation from my own experience and from discussions I have had with both professional and unprofessional (and unprofessional professional) counselors. The world we live in is sort of a crazy, chaotic place. We are perpetually flooded with stimuli that our little brains are trying to make sense of. In addition to the sense data we get (touch, taste, sight, etc) we also have large amounts of thoughts and emotional data that we are trying to make sense of. This can be a painful and exhausting process. Why do you think babies cry so much? Look at this little guy: clearly overwhelmed and letting it out in the way most university students taking exams wish they could.


So my theory is this: psychosis is the brain essentially refusing to process anymore. When the stimuli become too confusing the brain says, "Fuck this shit. I don't even care if I know what's going on. I'm just going to believe something so I don't melt down like that fucking baby and embarrass myself." It's a defense mechanism.

You may be thinking, "Wow, I'm glad my brain isn't damaged and doesn't do that." But scarily enough, there's a decent amount of evidence to suggest that even normal people's brains experience something similar to psychosis. Don't take my word for it. Listen to this guy (he has letters after his name, so you can trust him): Smart Man Explains How We Are All Basically Hallucinating All The Time.

Basically, the brain can't collect enough information to completely understand the world (in fancy philosophy terms: there are limits on our epistemological access to the "real world," whatever that is), so it takes the limited amount it does have and constructs a model from that. It's miraculous that it's usually as good as it is.

Now let's talk about delusions. Delusions are deeply held beliefs about the world and the way it operates that appear to contradict evidence and are resistant to being challenged. If a delusional person is convinced the government is secretly recording everything he does, no amount of evidence is going to sway that view. But where does the delusion come from?

Enter the idea of a narrative. A narrative is a script that seeks to explain the causal link between events and to generate predictions about the likely results of certain actions. Narratives are ways of trying to make sense of more complicated stimuli (such as the motivations of other people or events that occur over a longer period of time). We all have narratives that structure the way we see the world. In many ways our sense of self is just a narrative we make up or let others make up that attempts to tie together the series of actions our body and mind have performed throughout our lives so that it isn't just a confusing mess of arbitrary decisions.

As humans we need narratives to understand the complicated social interactions we face every day and to make sense of who other people are and what they are likely to do. In this context it's not as difficult to see why there are delusions. People are ridiculously complicated and trying to make sense of them, to make sense of the huge amount that has happened through history, to make sense of life can be overwhelming. So I propose that delusion is the same process of the brain refusing to try any more. At some point a part of you decides that it isn't worth it to put in any more effort.

I will propose theories for why people with Bipolar and other psychotic-spectrum disorders are especially prone to delusions in a later post, but don't think you're off the hook! The point I'm trying to make is that we all can only process so much information and we all need narratives to explain the world, so it follows that at some point we are all only considering so much information. In other words, we are all slightly delusional.

The scariest part is that most people aren't aware that their perception is being guided by these narratives. Things we experienced in the home while growing up, things we see on TV or read in books, things people have said to try to explain human behaviour. What is love and how should people act when they are in love? Who gets to decide what happens in society and where do they get that power from? What makes a person happy and creates a life worth living? All of these are explainable only through narratives and, whether you realize it or not, you have chosen to listen to one narrative or another. Even if that narrative is that there are no narratives and this whole crazy thing called life is just an arbitrary and chaotic playing out of the forces of physics.

And often these narratives become untouchable because they become tied to our identities. By definition, this is psychotic behaviour (and you'd hate to ever be like Michael Myers, wouldn't you?). So are we just doomed to live in our bubbles of delusion until we inevitably fight to the death and destroy ourselves?

Yes. Good talk.

Just kidding, no we aren't! Because once we acknowledge the existence of these narratives we can actively choose what we want to accept and what we don't. We can write new narratives to replace the shitty ones our ancestors have passed down to us. And with time, patience, and honesty maybe we can make a world governed by narratives that promote human flourishing. Delusion is a defense mechanism, so if a person feels valued and accepted they are more likely to let down their defenses and consider that their narrative might not be accurate or useful.

Steps:
1) Person is delusional
2) Sprinkle love onto them (in a non-weird way, you pervert)
2.5) Say something silly and stupid just because it's fun
3) Gently offer a more helpful and accurate narrative
π) Consider the rationality of their irrationality (π- irrational. Haha. At least my mom thinks I'm funny...) and make changes to your own narratives as neccessary
4) Repeat steps 1-π ad nauseam with this person
5) Repeat steps 1-4 with a large number of people
6) World is perfect and we can all sing kumbayah

That ending seems too uplifting.



Now we're back to a nice, healthy, sober perspective. In all things balance ;)