Let’s Stop Being So Quick to Pathologize
Pathologizing has become the new normal. We are often quick to name and diagnose ourselves and others, rather than taking the time to understand whether there is something deeper at play; something connected to the bigger picture of ourselves, our stories, and the story of society.
What story are we creating when we tell ourselves that our mental anguish must be a pathology; something that needs to be treated so that it is not felt? In a world that is becoming increasingly faced-paced, desensitized, and artificial – a world that has become more of a divergence from a natural way of being than ever before – is it not normal to feel such anguish?
Just as the body gets sick to signify that we need to slow down and rest, our mental anguish also alerts us. It tells us something is wrong; that something needs to change. But in modern society, we want a fast answer – a quick fix – for our physical and mental discomfort. There’s nothing we dislike more than being uncomfortable, so we rush to diagnose, pathologize, and prescribe, rather than slowing down enough to consider what might be wrong with the system in which the discomfort is taking place. Such consideration requires deep thinking and a great deal of attention, concern, and patience. But we have not bred a society conducive to this caliber of care; we have not bred a society conducive to love.
Instead, we have bred an abnormally fast-paced, attention deficit, individualistic, desensitized, lethargic society. A society that has little endurance for the profound thought and consideration needed for getting to the root of its anguish. A society that has lost its penchant for taking the time to truly care for one another. A society that has become so hedonistic and narcissistic that, like a child, it cannot see beyond its immediate wants and needs to recognize the void it might be trying to fill, or the source of its own or others’ suffering. A society that opts for the quick fix; that would rather alter its body or numb itself than see and feel what might truly be underneath its pain and discomfort.
In opting for the quick fix, we opt for laziness, and laziness is the antithesis of love.
Laziness is a passive failure to love; the failure to extend oneself for truth and the failure to extend oneself for the Other. By being so quick to pathologize, we insidiously acquiesce to creating a world that is becoming increasingly lazy, increasingly tuned out, increasingly disconnected, increasingly artificial, increasingly less human; the very things that negate love.
A society that attempts to cover up its pain – that sweeps it under the rug, that opts for the quick fix, that has little reverence for slowing down enough to get to the root of its discomfort – cannot realize true love.
There are no shortcuts in love. Love is the long road.
Love is not quick to name or diagnose. Love takes its time. It slows down, pays attention, and feels, rather than speeds up, ignores, and numbs. It fights to preserve our most innate needs and natural way of being; to create a reality that is more connected and human, rather than capitulating to a reality that is becoming increasingly disconnected and less human.
Love looks at itself and the bigger picture as one interwoven tapestry – an interdependent, interconnected whole that thrives from loving action – and acts for the common good. In its dedication to creating a story based on truth, it is willing to be personally challenged. It opens and stretches its mind and heart. It seeks to understand. It changes, it grows, it transforms.
With love,
Samantha
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