That’s exactly what he says, but I feel like science can provide proof of this now, even though it was already obvious. 🙄 He says ‘It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society’. From a young age, I always felt like something was ‘wrong’, but didn’t know what it was… I more often felt like there was something wrong with me or with the fact that no one was talking about how wrong things were. Personally I always felt like the system I live in was very much against me, just trying to trick me into getting my money all the time... They would even ask me to do unethical things in the workplace, which didn’t seem right. And I live in Canada, where things are not so bad, but still not great either.

I think it’s great that you’re able to apologize and learn from it, we’re all a work in progress! ;) Sometimes we get fed up and over-emotional, we all have bad days…

I believe it… It’s like order and control takes priority, nobody cares about our health and well-being, maybe not even your parents. How can you be healthy when your parents, your employer and your society doesn’t even care about you and your feelings. :-/

Well what people need to learn is that there’s no shame in having addictions, it’s really so common these days but people don’t usually talk about it for fear of embarrassement. If people don’t talk about it they won’t realize how common it is… It’s really more of a societal problem at this point. Addictions actually all stem from the same thing, which is trauma, so there’s no addiction that’s worse than another, although some are obviously more harmful. But food and alcohol addictions have become socially acceptable.

I’ve also been diagnosed recently. Before I had difficult symptoms but didn’t know the cause. When I went to see medical doctors they couldn’t find anything wrong with me, yet I wasn’t feeling well and finding it very hard to function.

It is sad that you can’t take care of your health because you’re so busy with other things. :( I’m going to let you in on a trick, it’s very easy, you can easily do this even if you’re busy. It’s an exercise that only takes 10 minutes to practice, a few times per week. It worked amazingly well for me. But keep in mind that it might bring back difficult emotions… I’m not a therapist so I don’t mean to give you medical advice. You might want to buy the book Healing Trauma by Peter Levine, because it’s full of short/easy exercises you can do from home. The exercise I liked is called the tapping or shower exercise. It’s also in his book Waking the Tiger, which has the shorter version. But doing it for 10 minutes is plenty! Somatic Experiencing is a valid therapy method by the way, Peter Levine is a reputable psychologist and not a spiritual guru, just FYI…

Other things that really help me is breath work and the app Curable, for whenever difficult symptoms or emotions come up. I’m happy to help if you have any questions! ☺️

Absolutely, it is. 👍

It’s really stupid, everyone knows it’s not a joke. Them saying that is just a way of getting away with it, also this way they don’t have to take a good hard look at themselves and their behaviour. People can really be awful. :-/

It’s like being abusive while trying to make it look like it’s not abusive… 🙄

I didn’t know his son was also Marxist, good to hear. I love the childcare idea! Thanks for sharing. What he also says is that parents should really avoid childcare for at least the first 3-4 years of the life of children. Children really need their parents. It’s part of what causes trauma, a child needs a strong sense of safety and they’re not really getting enough of that in the current system.

👍

I would like to read it, I’m reading his latest book and I read ‘When The Body Says No’, great book! :)

Yes, ‘The Myth of Normal’, but didn’t finish reading it yet. I never heard of ‘Hold Onto Your Kids’? But everyone talks about the ‘The Realm of Hungry Ghosts’. :D

I like your Gumby! ;) Didn’t know he was a commie... :D

Why wouldn’t it be positive? It brings more awareness to the movement. You’re right, it does take a whole village to raise a child, that’s the problem… people are too isolated nowadays.

I really like those words too… all the time I see people being in denial about something and because of this, nothing gets done, there’s no progress being made, people are not fixing problems, not doing anything about them. To me it’s so frustrating… I see the problem, I see what could be done to fix it, but nothing changes because people can’t even do the first step, which is just acknowledging the problem.

It’s even debatable whether ignorance really is bliss. In the moment it is, but in the long-term it’s actually more painful. If a problem is not being taken care of, it either remains or becomes an even bigger problem (as in what’s going on with the environment).

People who suffer from mental health issues are very ‘limited’ in how much they can do. When you’re healthier, which is the point of psychedelic therapy, you’re much more capable, more clear-minded… This type of therapy is not to pacify people but to help them heal. So I wouldn’t worry about that, I don’t think it’s a concern. Health is always a good thing. But true that anger can be a good motivator to take action, but being disabled by mental illness is not. It makes you incapable of doing much, you’re just constantly trying to cope with the symptoms you’re dealing with. I think if someone realizes that they’ve been robbed of their life because of mental illness and that the mental illness was caused by the system they live in, there would still be plenty of anger and motivation left to take action. If anything you’d just be much more capable to do so.

Good job! 🤭

People that do emotional abuse really do get away with murder… you’re right, no one is treating it as something ‘serious’, but it is, it just murders people from the inside. Part of this is that it’s much harder to prove emotional abuse, often it’s debatable whether it is or not. I’m still unsure if my parents are emotionally abusive, there are people in my life that I think are emotionally abusive but someone else might disagree with me… it’s just not as clear as physical or sexual abuse. So it’s not just that people are being dismissive of it, although they might. People tend to also be very dismissive of anything that feels uncomfortable to them, they’ll sweep it under the rug as long as they can.

Humans are violent! 😅 Not really that nice either… I mean there’s nothing nice about picking on the ones that are weaker, and you having some kind of weakness is obviously not your ‘fault’ and certainly not something you asked for. So yeah, humans are pretty disgusting. Or ‘some’ of them are… there’s nice people also.

But keep in mind that there’s an unusual amount of mental illness at the moment, there’s also a lot of trauma (it makes people feel more threatened, less trusting of each other). So if we didn’t have that to deal with I do think that people would at least be ‘nicer’ and get along ‘better’. I think sometimes you need to open up to people and help them understand you better, because they don’t seem to be able to do that on their own. :-/

Exactly, that’s how trauma happens. :(

Well that’s the thing, people don’t really understand trauma. When people think of trauma, usually they think of a veteran having trauma from having been through a war, or someone who has physical trauma or trauma from being in a traumatic event like a car accident. But it’s not like that at all… I mean that can also cause trauma but what Gabor says is that the way we live nowadays is very different from the way we evolved, and nowadays a child doesn’t necessarily get a sense of safety and security like they once did. Part of that is because people live more isolated lives, also it can just come from the stress of the parents, which the child picks up on. An anxious mother is enough to cause trauma, or a mother who has a poor sense of boundaries... I wasn’t sexually or physically abused, haven’t had any traumatic event in my life but I was still diagnosed with trauma. My mom just has a poor sense of boundaries, or ‘I think’ that’s what caused it in my case… But I also have anxious parents.

So sorry to hear that… :( Addictions are very hard to deal with. It hasn’t been a major problem for me but I can imagine… Life can get very dark, I’ve been there. Mindfulness also helped me, as well as doing a lot of healthy reframing. It takes a lot of practice and commitment but it does work. Repressing emotions is very harmful to your health. One thing I practice is just really feeling my feelings, if that makes sense. Gabor Maté talks a lot about that as well, or the impacts of not being authentic, or being a people-pleaser and not knowing how to set boundaries for yourself.

I honestly think life will always be challenging, there’s just ups and downs. But you can definitely improve your life and you can learn how to cope better. If you weren’t blessed with a good health you can get healthier.

I also often felt inadequate, or wasn’t sure what to think of myself. Turns out I was just traumatized… and this has more to do with the system I live than it had to do with me. It’s a helpful realization but also quite dark to contemplate. You’re definitely not alone with all this, even though it can feel that way sometimes, that’s important to remember.

Thanks for the nice wishes! And best of luck to you. Thanks for opening up and sharing your experience, I know it’s not an easy topic. Never give up! ✊