I read an article about Kanye West in a complimentary issue of People Magazine. I found it interesting that the only issue of People Magazine that I've received had an article about someone who has been diagnosed as bipolar. I am bipolar and have been dealing with the illness for more than thirty years. In the beginning I was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and given awful drugs – so awful that I refused to take them. This led to years of delusions and hallucinations, living on the streets, and restraints and seclusion when in psych wards. I now work for Apple and all is well.
I am one of the people that needs to stay on medication, but I also believe that mental illness is a Spiritual Emergency and that one cannot truly heal without some form of spiritual journey. Kanye West is a very spiritual person and has commented that he does not suffer from depression. I believe there is a direct correlation. At certain times, when I have been stable on medication but have lost faith, I have become severely depressed. The current method of treatment for the mentally ill is sorely lacking. To give someone some pills and send them on their way, while discounting their Spiritual Emergency as a mere symptom, is extremely cruel. Medication can lesson delusions and hallucinations, but it cannot avert an existential crisis.
I am twenty-six years sober and use the Twelve Steps. When I started to use the Twelve Steps for my bipolar disorder, my life dramatically improved. I have been on a spiritual journey ever since.
I am working on a book about my experiences and one of the results I hope materializes is a new way to treat mental illness: one that addresses the Spiritual Emergency, one that includes the Twelve Steps in every treatment center and every hospital everywhere.
One thing I’d like to mention that I think about a lot, is that I did quite a few illegal things when I was living on the streets, and whenever I was arrested, I was taken to the hospital. I am fully aware that had I been a black man, I would no doubt have been taken to jail.
Kanye has a wonderful life ahead of him, and so do I.
