Epitome Of A Tortured Genius

It's better to starve free than to be a fat slave.
-Aristotle

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.
-Aristotle

If you're a highly creative individual that doesn't want to end up like the epitome of a tortured genius, you have to find balance. Sometimes you have to burn yourself out so you can rest. Sometimes you have to lose it. Escape from reality by running away for a day or two. There's nothing wrong with that. It's why artists say they don't ask for inspiration. It comes to them. Nature made you the way you are. It's your instinct. Right brain thinkers use their intuition more than logical folk. They tend to see what's in front of them. They use the information given to them and most of the time don't think to come up with their own ideas. But Intuitive people get emotional when they sense something isn't right. I know life's a bitch. But you shouldn't have to take pills to become the ideal model citizen. Don't be a victim of the world. All great artists create until they don't have the strength. If you give up in life a million little things will chip away at you. You should never stop being the genius you are. Let the voices in your head overcome you. Keep creating until they fall silent. Show the world what it's shown you. If your head doesn't work right, follow your heart. Age with grace. Be a composer.

MUSCIC SAMPLES FROM CREATIVE GENIUS TYPES...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AhpoqTkuwY&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__r0gwxzeVE&NR=1&feature=fvwp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5wbb9YWYRA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=_jvhR6qsEuo&feature=PlayList&p=E7C2018129CC009C&index=37
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRtovSpE_tA&feature=related

I'm worried because I've seen allot of brilliant people in my life, lose that spark of intellect due to numbing themselves. Weather it's from prescripted meds or street drugs. When your body adjusts to them you need to up the dosage. I've worked in a mental institution before. In my opinion, insanity is biting people and drinking from the toilet. Severe mental retardation is insanity. Bipolar disorder is a term used to describe your current imbalanced emotional condition. If you let your fears and your emotions control you, your sanity will gradually become worse and worse. There are varying degrees of these episodes. They start off as general anxiety and depression. From there you have panic attacks, then mania, then psychosis and finally Schizophrenia. They are all just your body and your mind reacting to stress. They can be controlled without the use of prescribed meds. Your sanity is your responsibility. Unfortunately, when we are labeled with such vices, it gives us an excuse to justify our behavior, without questioning why we feel such strong emotions in the first place. Our feelings can be dealt with in a healthy way. Managing ones emotions shouldn't mean holding them back. We should except that we have these emotions and instincts for a reason. To survive our harsh environment. Evolution gave you tear ducts for a reason. It's response to stimuli. Use them when necessary. When you cry all those natural body chemicals flood out of you.

It's sad that it takes a person so long to figure out who they are and what life is. But once you do, It's best to drink life in as much as possible, if and when you can. There's nothing wrong with you. There never was anything wrong with you. The world around you however, is a different story. You're an intelligent and passionate. The traumatic experiences you have had in your life or have read about have taken its toll on your nerves. If you have high levels of testosterone in your body, that can be a problem too. All that energy is looking for an escape. There are thousands of people with mental problems that have learned to cope with stress through Traditional Chinese medicine, philosophy, meditation, yoga etc. There's a reason these methods have been practiced for centuries. They come from a time when people had to live with the harshest of rulers, with little to no human rights. In ancient China for instance, rose oil was very rare. If a man were to posses even a small drop, he would be beheaded. We are quickly approaching a time of tyranny and corruption. In order to survive these times with dignity and grace, alternative measures need to be taken in order to stay calm. these ancient methods should seriously be taken into consideration.

Back home, When I was a girl I use to bike down dirt roads and go swimming in the rivers. The sun doesn't come out much here and it rains allot. But there's something about those hills I find breath taking. To me they're better then the ocean. I used to have vivid dreams that I was flying over them. I've had allot of recurring dreams like that. I would be standing around, talking to a group of people and then suddenly float upwards, rise over the trees and the hay fields, and soar. I wonder what the psychology of that is?

Love And Creativity

"Happiness is a physiological process which is related to creativity. The happiness that comes from having your love returned is like a chemical elixir, pumping endorphins and other hormones through the brain, keeping neurons firing at top capacity. Neurons work with information, and the memories that are forming during the course of a good relationship are very strong creative enhancers. Ever wondered why it takes so long to get "over" a long-term relationship? That's the depth of the neurological involvement showing its less-than-lovely side. As long as the relationship continues, however, that neurological development goes on at many different levels. We know that newborn babies who are unloved or separated from family because of illness or other misfortune suffer a low rate of neurological growth. Some mental processes, such as empathy, do not ever reach full development in the absence of maternal love in the first six months of life. Empathy, for example, is a prime ingredient in the writing of a great novel or short story. A fiction author cannot create compelling stories without being able to step into the shoes, minds and heart of their characters. This ability is called empathy. While the brain chemicals involved in "falling in love" have been equated with those of mental illness, the brain adjusts after a period of time and begins to rise on the curve again. If a new relationship lasts more than two years and remains healthy, it will begin to deepen sharply. This deepening can be measured physiologically as being a major factor in developing creativity"

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
- Charels Darwin

There are people that like to say that enlightenment is bullshit. It doesn't pay the bills. Neither does love and happyness. But if you have to seperate your self from all these great things to make money, isn't paying the bills bull shit?
Not that you needed to see more of this kind of thing but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_baloCb-nM&feature=related\par
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZpOXj6u78&feature=related

Creativity

3.5 billion years of a mutating gene sequence has brought you to where you are right now. In those billions of years of evolution, instincts were developed in order for you to adapt and survive. In today's society survival is the main objective. But what's the point of surviving if you don't feel alive? Before the first societies were invented, there were three types of people. Leaders, followers and creators. Creativity isn't a want it's a need. Or better yet an instinct. Animals create too. Spiders create webs to catch flies. Birds weave together nests to hold their eggs high in trees. Nature creates to sustain itself. Just like all other instincts, when you repress your most primitive instincts for to long, you can suffer physical and psychological damage. For instance, If you don't have intercourse or masturbate regularly, sexual hormones and fluids build up inside of your body, making you irritable and tense. The religions that teach sexuality as being sinful have a bad reputation for being related to sexual abuse and violence for a reason. That's why madness and creativity are biased as going hand in hand. When you repress your creativity you go numb and then become anxious and depressed. Thoughts build up in your head. You don't want to eat or sleep. When you are finished creating a calm falls over you. Creating is like giving birth. Children use the right side of their brain but gradually use more of the left throughout adulthood. This could explain why creative people are so childish at times. More emotional. They hate being told what to do because it stifle creativity. Artists also need a lot of time alone time to formulate thoughts. Logical people are the opposite. They need rules and structure. Without them they panic. They need to work with other people. They are childish in their own way by having a low tolerance for different people. A negative trait children posses. I guess that's why they say there's no difference between kids and adults except for height and responsibility.

I remember seeing a movie set in the 1700's about a writer. The government didn't like his outspoken manner and he was constantly getting into trouble with the law. They took everything away from him. As a way of rebelling, he would find anything he could to write with. If I'm remembering this right (or maybe just interpreting my memories wrong) He used a rock scratching on the wall or fingernails into his skin. When they tied him up in a cell room with nothing he could possibly write with, he used his own fecal matter as a kind of paste. I can't remember how it ended for him. I'm guessing not well because it was aristocratic France. It reminds me of the quote by Gandhi.

"I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life."
- Gahndi

REALIZATION

Realization is this; You and the people close to you are unknowingly floating along in a big protective bubble. You like the bubble, even though it bounces up and down at times. It's always good to stay afloat. But when someone outside tells you a secret, it's like an F5 tornado has sucked you out of your bubble, ripping it to shreds so you can never get back inside. Everything outside is swirling around and around out of control. Once you learn something you can never forget it. No matter how much you want to. Your only hope is to try and drag your loved ones out with you. You want to save them... or perhaps they can save you. But people don't like the truth. They like it in the bubble. If you tell people the truth, they shoot the messenger, because the messenger just fucked up their world big time. So now you must live in the dizzying world outside alone.

They say that over organizing things is a sign of loneliness. That could be why the civilized world is so OCD. Whites are made their brightest. Lawns don't have a weed in sight. Sit up straight. Cross your t's and dot your i's. Try to do everything the way it should be done. And spend a large portion of your income, on drinking establishments

Mother Shipton

The Mother Shipton prophecies keep coming closer and closer to fruition. An acquaintance of mine volunteers at a university teaching music. He made a terrifying observation about his students. If you were to ask them a question about something that isn't in the text-book, they look completely lost. They don't have the creative ability to make an educated guess. They're also very easily distracted. He said their frontal lobes aren't developing the way they should be. Universities that once harboured intelligent minds that exchange knowledge and ideas, have been replaced by unruly drunken children. It seems like just an extension of high school now.

In the documentary, "The Medicated Child" they show normal energetic children that have been drugged by their parents because of problems at school. My favorite part was where they interviewed a 12 yr old girl. She said "The drugs make me more like I'm supposed to be." They showed some other boys with behavioral problems. (like what boy isn't a problem) One kid was acting up in class so they put him on Ritalin. He got moody and anxious from that so they put him another pill as well. Then that offset something else so they gave him pill after pill. The kid got all bloated like Daniel Johnson and developed a nervous tick. The drugs fucked him up worse. When really all he needed in the first place was to burn off all that youthful energy. Kids are energetic. It's not ADD. You've got parents letting them grow up online, eating crappy food and drinking red bull. No wonder they can't concentrate.

The Medicated Child
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCfRqNISQZg

I used to have tremendous panic attacks when I lived in the middle of a busy town. I was miserable and sick all the time. My therapist wanted me to take pills for my Anxiety disorder. When I asked for some alternative treatments instead, She told me to tap on pressure in between my eyebrows when I felt nervous. Can you imagine someone in public frantically tapping their forehead? How is that supposed to make anyone feel better? Then she gave me a relaxation CD with her creepy voice recorded on it. The treatments were bogus but it's all the mental health department was willing to give. When I missed a few of her appointments she gave me hell for wasting her time and money. So I didn't go back after that. Now I live in the country again. Things take their time out here. People are nice. They actually come up to you and ask you if you need help with anything. I don't get panic attacks any more. I feel alright.

I've found the cure for mood disorders. Get as far away from civilization as possible!

BAD MEDICINE

Certain psychiatric meds have side effects that can cause weight gain due to increased appetite, changes in how the body metabolizes sugar and decreases in activity due to sedation. They can also cause extreme thirst, tremors and vomiting. ah yes... we all need to be sedated to cope with the ever increasing waist land that is our life. I think that some people are just better at tuning the world out then others. Those that can't escape are seen as having something wrong with them that needs to be corrected. Meds don't cure these disorders. That's why therapy is recommended along with medication. A person still has to learn self monitoring skills, to identify manic episodes. Psychotherapy is helpful to learn to adjust to the disorder, as well as focusing on symptoms and issues. It's like the same pitch they use to sell dieting pills. "With this diet pill, a healthy balanced diet and exercise, you too, can lose weight!" I'll bet the balanced diet and exercise would suffice. But people are to busy to do it the right way. They want instant gratification. The same goes with debilitating mental disorders. Instead of taking the time to figure out why your going crazy, you want a quick fix.

I don't care how crazy people think I am. I'm never going to drug myself in order to be seen as sane. I want the world to see what it does to people like me. It's so much easier to tell people your having manic episodes are because you're bipolar. It's alot harder to admit that your smart and aware of how fucked up the world is. How it's slowly chipping away at your sanity. It's much easier to say "It runs in my family" then, I'm afraid. There will come a day, when all the pills in the world, won't be able to save us. Spoiled Americans need to learn the art of suffering.

Is it just a coincidence that, as our society becomes more dependant on technology, and less dependant on people, we become more depressed? Machines do everything now. People used to take pride in making everything they owned for themselves. Slowly over time, technology is replacing us more and more. Perhaps we've been changing our environment faster then we've been able to evolve to it. And the people that have once been greatly appreciated and much needed for being creative, have now fallen to the waist side. It's a litigious society and it's very hard for right brain thinkers to to make it. The arts are fueled by money. Making them as watered down as Whisky on the rocks at a bar stop in the middle of nowhere. Our literature, music and visual art masterpieces have been replaced with pulp fiction, pop music and photo shop. Science has been replaced with pseudo science. News has been replaced with misinformation. But one day it will collapse, just like all the advanced civilizations before it. Creative people will be anxious to figure out how to build it back up again.

"what the caterpillar sees as the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly"
Richard Bach

Propaganda

I have a theory that many of these mood disorders are just a product of this lonely, dehumanizing, chaotic, mass conformist society.
Whenever you ask a psychiatrist what causes these mental problems, what response do you get? "They don't know yet" isn't a very good answer but it's one I keep hearing. Neuroscience has proven that every one's brain is unique, making them act the way they do. There are three styles of learning. Visual, Auditory and kinesthetic. Some people learn fast. Some people learn slow. There are emotional people, and there are logical people. And in all of these distinctions, some people function on a greater magnitude then others. Great measures are taken to make everyone act the same. But there are always a rare few that behave differently from the collective. I went to a meeting for depression and anxiety once. There was more discussions on medication then anything else. It's like how they keep coming close to a cure for cancer but they always need ten more years for research. Bull shit I say. 'To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. They found the cure for cancer years ago. But they're loaded rich from researching. When the cure is found the funding stops. The science of behavior has many theories as to why different people act the way they do. But the public is rarely informed about it. Of course they can say it's a chemical imbalance. But what causes chemical imbalance? They fail to mention chemical imbalances in the brain can occur naturally from stress, lack of exercise and poor diet. Maybe that's why it's so hard for your brain to make those "feel good" chemicals. It doesn't need selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. It needs exercise. If it's one thing I've noticed about western medicine, it's that people react after the fact. People live shitty lifestyles and then get treated for health problems. Right away, before asking any questions or running any tests, they get drug treatments.
Modern society is the real problem. It fucks with peoples heads big time. Bad parenting fucked me up. The school system fucked me up. The media definitely fucked me up. And the erosion of empathy drove it all home. I needed people to help me more than other kids did. Teachers gave me hell for not being able to keep up the pace. The Simpson's taught me more about life then my parents. Since I'm a visual learner, I'm more vulnerable to visual distractions. Useless information was fed to me everyday without any choice in the matter. I couldn't develop my brain normally by learning and experiencing things on my own. I wasn't born autistic. The world made me that way. It runs in my family because we are mostly visual people. My brother got lucky because he's an auditory learner. He's excellent at following the rules set out for him.

Examples of propaganda:
"The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimate that the incidence of learning disabilities in the general population is 15 to 20 percent. Fifty-one percent of all the students enrolled in the nation's special education programs are classified as learning disabled (U.S. Department of Education)." Unfortunately, this diagnosis is often viewed as a hindrance rather than an opportunity for growth and understanding.
Parents and students, please note: Individuals diagnosed with learning disabilities are not "stupid." In fact, to qualify as having a learning disability, you must have average intelligence. This means that you have to be at least a little bit smart. Types of Learning Styles Students that have learning disabilities have one commonality, a processing deficit that interferes with their learning. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that every individual learns differently and thus has a unique learning style. "Approximately 20 to 30 percent of the school-aged population remembers what is heard; 40 percent recalls well visually the things that are seen or read; many must write or use their fingers in some manipulative way to help them remember basic facts; other people cannot internalize information or skills unless they use them in real-life activities such as actually writing a letter to learn the correct format." (Teaching Students to Read Through Their Individual Learning Styles, Marie Carbo, Rita Dunn, and Kenneth Dunn; Prentice-Hall, 1986, p.13.) For some, auditory input is most valuable; others rely upon a visual style. Still others learn through kinesthetic means, or a combination of the three. Every person has one primary learning mode. Once you identify that mode, you can learn to maximize it and enhance your child's education."

"In the U.S., more than 3.2 million patients are diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression. Typically, patients have tried several medications and treatments without success or improvement." That's because they've all been proven to be shit. There's been many documented cases of people getting worse from prescription medications passed by the FDA as safe. You must keep in mind that they make money from people being sick. And if everyone in America was full health and vitality, there would be allot less people making billions.
In an article of Science Daily, the Medical University of South Carolina is running some new tests on how to treat patients. "Bilateral epidural prefrontal cortical stimulation (EpCS) was found generally safe and provided significant improvement of depressive symptoms in a small group of patients. Five patients were implanted with EpCS over the anterior frontal poles and the lateral prefrontal cortex bilaterally. Four separate paddle leads were then connected to two small generators surgically implanted in the upper chest area of the patient. The researchers individualized the treatment parameters for each patient to maximize the long-term antidepressant effects. They relied in part on input from the patients themselves who signaled positive mood changes when first stimulated. In general, their devices were set to periodically deliver electrical charges at intensities below the seizure threshold."
Isn't it great that they keep coming up with new ways to treat us for our suffering? Freud and Josef Breuer saw neurotic symptoms like hysteria as a means for the unconscious mind to express itself. Is our society really more accepting of people who are different? Or is it accepting they're different, while giving them no other alternative, then trying to be as 'normal' as possible. In the 50's, when that pesky frontal lobe acted up, (responsible for motor skills, creativity and emotional reactions) they would just give you a frontal lobotomy. Thankfully activist groups rallied against it. I cried when I saw the end of "one flew over the coco's nest", knowing that it was based on a true story. Anyone seen as having a mental breakdown was simply taken away by the cops, and then got chunks of their brains removed.Who needs emotions in this kind of society right? Human needs and desires get in the way of progress. It's horrifying, to be aware of how much America has changed after Nazi Germany. I think the government learned from Hitlers reign how to have more power over people. Not by force but through mind control.
psychology

I read a psychology book from the 60's (the name escapes me) about the modern world's effect on the human mind. The author stated that, in America at the time, Youngsters had a greater chance of ending up in a mental hospital then going on to university. He took it to mean that we could be driving young people insane with the amounts of pressures suddenly forced upon them. In tribal communities, teens pass over to adult hood with ease. But in western culture, the path to adult hood is made as difficult as possible. Young people go from having no control over their lives, to suddenly having to take leaps and bounds. Do we really need to drug so many people, so they can fit into what's ideally normal, or should society be the one to change. That's what disorders are by their very nature. Dis-orders. Disorderly conduct. Is insanity simply going against the majority?

Alternative Treatments To Mental Illnesses

This blog is aimed at any person suffering from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety/depression, autism etc...

These videos are very insightful. I'm positive you'll gain from them. They portray possible alternatives to the mental health system, shamanism, nutrition, psychotherapy, meditation and protest against draconian mental health legislation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h12_kRYITTA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0agtlyiNW4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRqN-X3an1Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gFB4wVPpAU&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=C27A8C0755C33527

I'm not sure if this stuff is real but it's really cool...and scary.

http://www.livevideo.com/liveshow/ExtraordinaryRendition/archive_729006.aspx

http://www.livevideo.com/liveshow/ExtraordinaryRendition/archive_728990.aspx

Someone left an excellent comment for one of them:
"Now you let the cat out of the bag.
Establishment Big Pharma has been feeding Big Brother this idea of feeding and bringing forth a submissive population. When the population at large have each a chronic body imbalance, they will not be at liberty to agitate for change. They will be complacent. Like drugged sheep and cattle. In other words, easy to handle. Now you start people thinking, That's dangerous."

"People are difficult to govern because they have to much knowledge."
(Lao-tzu)

When you think of it, there are a lot of strange people out there. What makes them their strangest, is the inability to fit into the conforms of society. 'Crazy' people don't want to admit that they're crazy. Well who wants to admit there is something wrong with them? Perhaps people being seen as unstable are just more sensitive to the tragities in life. They have a heightened sense of awareness. Reason can be very unreasonable. There's no right or wrong. You just have to follow your own intuition.
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-John Lennon

This is the story of John F. Nash Jr. and how he overcame schizophrenia without the use of debilitating medications.

"John's mental state was beginning to deteriorate. It is thought that his psychotic break occurred primarily from anxiety about his work and Alicia's pregnancy. His friends first noticed his odd behaviour when he arrived at a New Year's Eve party dressed as a baby and spent the entire evening curled up on Alicia's lap, sucking his thumb. In his game theory course, he appointed a graduate student to teach and disappeared for several weeks, suddenly appearing in the commons at MIT. There, he began exclaiming that aliens were sending him encrypted messages through the New York Times. He also interrupted a lecture to say that he was on the cover of LIFE magazine, disguised as the pope, and he knew this because twenty-three was his favorite prime number.
On the campus, he began noticing many people wearing red ties. He thought that the men were members of a secret communist organization and began watching them carefully. When the University of Chicago offered him a prestigious position in their faculty, John turned it down, saying that he was scheduled to become the emperor of Antarctica. He talked to his colleagues about extraterrestrial creatures and secret government agencies working to destroy his credibility and reputation, greatly disturbing them.
The math department chairman relieved John of his teaching responsibilities, thinking that he was having a nervous breakdown. Eventually, John was hospitalized at McLean private hospital near Boston. John was terrified of being locked up, thinking that he didn't belong there. He was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and given Thorazine to calm him down. His treatment there was psychoanalysis and his doctors referred to him as "Professor". After he was released, he resigned from MIT and withdrew his pension to move to Europe. In Europe, he made various attempts to renounce his citizenship in the United States and declare refugee status. Alicia followed him to Europe and had him deported back to the United States. Although he was flown back to the United States, he claimed that he had been put in chains and sent back in a ship, like a slave. Back in the US, John started hanging around at Princeton, talking about himself in the third person, writing bizarre postcards, and lecturing endlessly about numerology.
Alicia took up a job in Princeton and managed to support their family. She managed to convince the faculty at Princeton to give her husband small amounts of work in mathematics in an attempt to help him back into the society. However, he refused to sign W-4 forms saying that the government was conspiring against him. He continued to make pay phone calls to his family members using fictitious names.
In 1961, John was committed by Alicia and his sisters to Trenton State Hospital in New Jersey. There, he was subjected to insulin-coma therapy, which involved injecting the patient with large amounts of insulin to put them into a coma, often causing seizures. His colleagues in mathematics were outraged and wrote a letter to the hospital, urging the doctors to protect his mind for the good of humanity. He was discharged after six months of the insulin treatment and looked absolutely terrible to his family members.
His former colleagues at Princeton found him some research work and he published a paper on Fluid Dynamics, his first work in four years. He left for Europe again, sending bizarre postcards to his family with cryptic messages and mathematical theorems. He returned shortly afterward, looking rather haggard. In 1962 Alicia filed for a divorce and John moved in with Eleanor and his first son. She complained that he had deserted her without child support and resented her for committing him. His colleagues in Boston got him an apartment and arranged for him to meet with a psychiatrist, who prescribed anti psychotic drugs. He began to improve dramatically, beginning to look like the old Nash for the first time in years. He was much nicer and his egotistical nature had completely disappeared. He even began meeting with Eleanor and seeing his first son.
Less than a year after moving to Boston, he stopped taking his medicine, causing his symptoms to resurface. He said that he stopped taking the medication mainly because of his feeling of exhaustion and inability to concentrate on his work. This time, he heard voices along with his visual delusions. The voices constantly criticized his behavior and greatly deteriorated his mental condition.
In 1970, Alicia allowed John to move in with her and their son, promising to never commit him again to a hospital. She took him not only as a husband, but to prevent him from living on the streets as a homeless beggar. He began showing up on Princeton, writing mathematical formulas all over campus and developing a reputation as "The Phantom" due to his extreme introversion. Myths developed, with students telling each other that he had been driven to madness as a result of trying to solve an overly complex mathematical problem.
Over the next decade, he continued to wander the campus, working independently on mathematical problems. Some time in the 1980s, he finally overcame his mental illness learning to reject the voices that he heard in his head. His recovery was gradual, but allowed him to slowly become mentally fit, allowing him to regain a role in society. He said that his recovery was as a result of his decision to think rationally. Over time his idea of an equilibrium point in game theory had finally caught the proper attention and became a cornerstone of modern economics. Economists mostly used his ideas to attempt to predict occurrences in the world economy. Members of the Nobel committee finally decided to award Nash the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994, despite fears of him causing a major embarrassment. People were shocked that a man suffering from schizophrenia for so many years was able to recover and receive such a prestigious award.
Today, Nash serves in the department of mathematics at Princeton. He has since remarried Alicia and found that his own son also suffers from schizophrenia. He has also reconnected with his oldest son, John Stier. His life was immortalized in the film "A Beautiful Mind", with his character portrayed by Russell Crowe."
......................................................................................

"Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively”
-Voltaire
Most people aren't aware of it yet but psychiatry tends to over diagnose people, without mentioning what the real reason for their problems are in the first place. Society never takes the blame for screwing us up. The problem is always a personal one. This type of propaganda keeps us in line so we can still pay the bills and go to work, no matter how stressful and unrewarding life has become for us.
There are 4.5 million americans with depression. That's enough people to make a whole country in itself. The number of people taking anti depressants has doubled in only a decade. Something isn't right about this. It pains me to think of what might of happened to someone like Albert Einstein if he would have been treated for his eccentricities. Some say he had high functioning autism. His brain processed large amounts of information at once. But he had the logic to formulate his thoughts and establish a career. Einstein said that he would go away for weeks at a time in a state of confusion. The guy had to many ideas is all. He was busy all the time thinking and experimenting. If he would have been drugged for his condition I doubt he would be able to think as well. Instead of developing his theory of general relitivity and winning the nobel prize for physics, he might have just stayed at the patent office in Bern, Switzerland.
“As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.”
- Einstein
http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96mar/einstein.html <<<<< Einstine bio
You can always trust the information given to you by people who are crazy. They have an access to truth not available through regular channels.
- Sheila Ballantvne
Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.
-Norah Ephron
There are some that would never have made it where they are today if their disorder was treated early on in life. Your pain is your muse. And crazy people can be strangely admerable when they're in the publics eye. The media loves following them. Their condition made them famouse!

A few years ago I started reading activist journalism stuff like Adbusters. Then I learned about how to live off of wildlife. Hey I'm no nomad. But at least I try to live as naturally as possible. It's better then nothing. We live in an either/ or world. If you can't do one or the other, shoot for the middle I always say. I've taught my parents about this stuff and they're slowly changing their lifestyles for the better. Mom's growing her own garlic, because she's tierd of getting the stuff that's been shipped all the way from China. In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

I highly recomend the book Man And His Symbols by Carl G. Jung. His work was aimed at the public as a whole, rather then just phsyciatrists. His theory is that imagination must be taken more seriously, as one of the most distinctive characteristics in human beings. Some of his theories will blow your mind. They're such a different way at looking at things, but yet they make absoulutly perfect sense. "
“It is true however that in recent times civilized man has acquired a certain amount of will power, which he can apply where he pleases. He has learned to do this work efficiently without having recourse to chanting and drumming to hypnotize him into the state of doing. He can even dispense with a daily prayer for divine aid. He can carry out what he proposes to do, and he can apparently translate his ideas into action without a hitch, whereas the primitive seems to be hampered at each step by fears, superstitions, and other unseen obstacles to action. The motto “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” is the superstition of a modern man.
Yet in order to sustain his creed, contemporary man pays the price in a remarkable lack of introspection. He is blind to the fact that, with all his rationality and efficiency, he is possessed by “powers” that are beyond his control. His gods and demons have not disappeared at all; they have merely got new names. They keep him on the run with restlessness, vague apprehensions, psychological complications, an insatiable need for pills, alcohol, tobacco, food – and, above all, a large array of neuroses. “

The sad truth is that that man’s real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites – day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain. Life is a battleground. It always has been, and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.
It was precisely this conflict within man that led the early Christians to expect and hope for an early end to this world, or the Buddhists to reject all earthly desires and aspirations. These basic answers would be frankly suicidal if they were not linked up with peculiar mental and moral ideas and practices that constitute the bulk of both religions and that, to a certain extent, modify their radical denial of the world.

There is, however, a strong empirical reason why we should cultivate thoughts that can never be proved. It is that they are known to be useful. Man positively needs general ideas and convictions that will give a meaning to his life and enable him to find a place for himself in the universe. He can stand the most incredible hardships when he is convinced that they make sense; he is crushed when, on top of all his misfortunes, he has to admit that he is taking a part in a “tale told by an idiot”. -Jung
......................................................................................

I have a problem with trying to save people instead of focusing on myself. In, pop phsycology, they call this "wounded bird syndrome" I call it empathy. There's nothing wrong with wanting to help people. Society has been trained to be extremely competitve. But some people still have a nurturing insticnt to protect from harms way. We evolved helping eachother to brave the elements in order to survive. There's no better therapy, then talking to omeone who cares about you.

STRESS
Now that we have no need to hunt or gather, we find ourselves at a loss with each other. With no wild beasts left to conquer, man turns on his fellow creatures. Suppose this world is chaotic and stressful. It takes allot of consentration, focus and logic to succeed. People grow up away from home in organised learning institutions called schools, wich are governed a hell of allot like correctional facillities (prisons) both run by the government. In this stage of developement kids need all the experience they can get to develope a mind of their own for the upcoming "real world" they keep hearing about. But everything in the civilized world goes against their natural developement. Just when they get used to living in captivity, they must quickly learn to fend for themselves. We develope mental problems in our teens and twenties because of the overwhelming stress upon entering the real world. Every single person, I've met (or have seen in the media), with mental problems like manic depression/ anxiety, bipolar disorder and even skitsophrenia, all seem to have one thing in common. They are all highly intelligent. (As well as sensitive.) Every single one of them. A bad combination in these violent times. Perhaps the terror of knowing what's really going on drives us over the edge. Being aware of the truth can be a bitter pill to swallow. There are many ways to controll people in society and make them obedient. Some people just feel like they want to live life alive. If they feel trapped it drives them crazy. Science has proven that the instinct to escape repression is incoded in our DNA. As long as we're living creatures, we'll crave freedom. Like a bird in an open cage, No matter how long it's lived in captivity, it will try to fly free.
......................................................................................

When was the last time you sobbed? Bad things happen all the time. There are many reasons to cry these days. People get fired, divorced, die, and no news is good news. You should see people crying away their blues everywhere. But you don't. Especially men. In America, after the great war, emotions as well as any display of affection between men, were seen as being emasculate. In family photos predating the war, men could be seen leaning close together, without the bias of homosexuality. But in most other countries around the world, showing emotions isn't a sign of weakness. When we hold in our tears, the chemicals that make us emotional build up inside of us. They don't go away unless there's some sort of release. We can't get full control of ourselves untill these feelings are expressed.

Usually people that have mental problems such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are very smart. My boyfriend Danny has a high IQ. He has a heightened sense of awareness and reads all the time. He really hates authority. He could never understand why people can be such assholes. He had a nervous breakdown in University because some asshole was teasing a girl with weight problems. They had to hospitalize him because his mind literally snapped. All it took was a taunting moo moo noise to make the electrical impulses in his mind explode. He actually heard a snap. They said it was because he had so much pent up aggression over the years, that it all came out involuntarily at once. They had to teach him how to read and write all over again. I know several people with mental problems and they're all really intelligent. Maybe they're just more aware of the problems of the world then others. Maybe they're the sane ones and the world just brings out their negative emotions, making them look crazy. People with genius IQ's are tortured. Some of them become serial killers like in the movie American Psycho. Admit it. This world is pretty fucked up. And anyone seen as not conforming to normal standards of living, is automatically dubbed insane. They are also locked away for not meeting those standards. What if being Bipolar is just being passionate and highly emotional? What if it's a heightened awareness or higher level of consciousness. It's been proven that different people have different brains. It's also been proven that the FDA makes up fake illnesses and then gives fake pills because they make money from sick people. Like everyone knows by now that ADD was made up. It's just pent up energy that needs to be burned off. There's so many stupid rules and regulations, that it's probably driving people crazy...so to speak! When you have any intelligence in your head at all, it's pretty hard to hold down a boring job and go by the book.

Concentration through Meditation

Psychology has proven that meditation can improve your concentration. There are many forms of meditation that can help you focus your mind on a certain objective. Focusing your mind on a certain thing and not allowing it to think of anything else helps build concentration. Concentration, like any other mental task, improves through practice.

Kids these days are so used to concentrating on a number of things at once. Listening to music, while talking in a chat, while playing a game, while doing homework with the TV on in the background, has become common place. This is a very different environment from the silent classroom. Blame their poor attention span on too much technology. Kids can entertain themselves with the click of a mouse. Putting knowledge in ones head requires more time and effort then that. Humans didn't evolve with so many distractions! Instead of going to a therapist and asking why your child can't even focus on a simple conversation, get them to compartmentalise things. When they are doing homework, get them to do only that. Grades will improve.

Teach them that learning requires patience. Learning as we all know can be boring. It requires imagination to make it interesting. Learning isn't entertainment. To learn you must focus. And focusing takes practice. Just like any skill!

And THAT'S the alternative treatment for ADD!

Alternative medicine to Ritalin

If your looking for an alternative cure or remedy for, well, anything, look for ancient Chinese cures. TCM (traditional Chinese Medicine is very complex. IT was formed over thousands of years through observation of nature, the human body and the cosmos.

In our unhealthy western world there is medication for just about anything. However these drugs are poorly tested and can have many harmful side effects or even permanent damage. Thus giving drug companies a bad rep. Traditional medicines often use a more natural approach. TCM is still being used in China today as a primary course of action.

Something to think about before you go and get yourself addicted to a prescription you don't necessarily need.