[6] What It Felt Like to Come Home

CHAPTER 5: Some Reflections on Mental Health

(A writing exercise in several parts, each composed in 60 minutes and posted without edits)

Part VI – Chapter 5: Some Reflections on Mental Health

During my interactions with mental health treatment I’ve been told (more than once) that I ‘intellectualize’. More or less everything is a coping mechanism to a therapist and so the narrative I’ve been told is one of a man who uses concepts and ideas and abstraction to avoid confronting emotion and difficulty. I’m prepared to consider it. You never REALLY know what’s going on in your mind and outright denial is paradoxically the surest way to confirm a therapist’s theories (as is acceptance, and many things in between). I think I just have a mind that inclines in certain directions (as we all do) and my focuses tend to be on political theory and history and psychology. I think my outlook lends a unique and fascinating lens to many things that most people are totally uninterested in… conversely, there are many popular and beloved subjects that…