Perspective

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."

-Anais Nin¹

Life becomes clearer when seen from a higher perspective.

When I was vice president of U-Haul of Northern California, we occasionally heard that we should include Alaska in our network. When asked why, agents would say, "We get calls for trucks to Alaska all the time." Research revealed we didn't get that many calls and certainly not enough to justify the cost. Since Alaska was exotic and outside of the norm, our reservation agents placed more significance on the request and perceived it as happening more frequently than it really was. The actual numbers gave us a proper perspective and helped us make clear decisions.

My U-Haul experience taught me a lot about perspective that I find useful when thinking about mental health. For example, those who have one or a few hallucinations during their life place tremendous significance on them. The hallucinations are often seen as visits from God or seminal events in their lives. Those who hallucinate all the time and have not developed insight, believe it when they are told to keep the hallucinations from occurring. Those who have understanding, see them for what they really are--simply one aspect of experience that is neither more nor less significant than any other. With the proper perspective of understanding, we can choose to react to all experiences based on the wisdom gained from greater insight.

The current paradigm is that we are incapable of understanding our condition and should avoid it at all costs. The belief is if we get too close to the edge we will surely fall off, just as so many others have. What we fail to see is that we sent people out with no training, guidance, or understanding. Of course they got lost. Just as in Columbus' day, sailors went out without knowledge and understanding and they got lost. The lost sailors inadvertently proved the erroneous assumption that the world was flat, just as those with mental conditions in "disorder" prove the danger of getting outside of a very narrow range.

The majority of people want to have a deeper experience of life. If given the choice between a limited life or one that is rich and varied, almost everyone will pick the rich and varied option. Of course, some will pick the limited life, but mostly due to fear. If given a life where your thoughts are slowed down, your senses are diminished, and your reactions to the world are minimized, you will quickly understand why the majority of people that are overmedicated do not stick with the prescription. We want more life, not less.

The advantage Columbus had is that he saw the world from the other side and knew that it was not as everyone feared. My advantage is that I have seen the inner world from the other side and have a unique perspective to share.

The Current Perspective

If we were to graph our moods based on how intense they are it would look something like the above. As we move further towards the extremes of depression or mania, our level of perceived intensity increases. Of course, it is much more complex than a simple graph, but the point is that there are different levels of intensity that can be tied to our experiences.

I wrote at length about the ranges in The Depression Advantage,² so I won't go into detail here. Suffice it to say that as the level of intensity increases, the odds increase of attempted suicide and other negative consequences, at least in untrained people.

The common belief is that as we become more depressed, manic, hallucinatory, or delusional, the intensity becomes too much for us to handle. The need for narrowing our range is precipitated by behaviors that range from inappropriate to life threatening. Some bipolar people in crisis need to be kept in the zero range because they can't even handle normal intensity without losing control.

The recovery goals of the current paradigm of treating mental illness, including use of current medications, is to lower the intensity of all symptoms.³ Therapy teaches us to recognize and avoid triggers. Avoidance of difficult situations keeps our experiences in a very narrow range, but the goal of even "avoidance-based" therapy should be to help people to live within the range of "normal" people.

As you will read in the section on How To Get There, the first step of treatment is to narrow the range of moods and other symptoms until we are stable. My perspective is that the narrow range is a necessary starting point, but not the end of the path. Once we are trained and capable of handling the narrow range, we can begin to expand that range and experience life more fully. Eventually we can expand the range in ways that were previously considered impossible.

The Monastic Perspective

A perspective that I came to understand from my years in a monastery is one that influences me to this day. Secluding ourselves from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we spent many hours practicing disciplines that helped focus the mind so that we could live more in the moment.

The combination of a peaceful environment and the fellowship of like-minded souls helped us develop the willpower to overcome all obstacles in our path. The monastic belief is that all distractions must be minimized in order to have a more intense spiritual experience.

While I was in the monastery, I minimized my range of experience so that I could develop a deeper spiritual life. This practice is commonly used in all major religions and is the reason they have monastic traditions. They find it easier to keep focused on the goal that they value more than anything else. This belief is the reason for abstinence in the priesthood of the Catholic Church, for example.

The value of limiting the range of experience cannot be understated. It has proven to be an effective path for both spiritual adherents and in the treatment of mental disorders. There is a tremendous track record of success with limiting experience in order to achieve a stability that allows us to survive.

But minimizing distractions is just as limiting as the proven track record which kept the sailors in Columbus' day from venturing beyond a narrow range from shore. Both are fear based beliefs that confine us to a world much smaller than what is available to us. They are based on experiments that only strive to prove the predetermined objective.

One outcome of my spiritual practice was the belief that avoidance of things that triggered thoughts and emotions outside of a narrow range was the necessary path to my goals. It took the perspective of bipolar to understand that I was imposing a serious limitation on my ability to have a truly full life.

The New Perspective

The above graph illustrates the beginning of a path to a more advantaged life. By expanding the range while keeping the intensity, it can be argued that we gain more of our goal; having rich experiences and more of them.

In this case, we have expanded our range of experiences to mirror those that "normal" people have, while still maintaining stability. Combined with the monastic practice of focus (an important mind skill), we will eventually get to a state where we are experiencing the range of a "normal" person , but with much higher intensity.

By applying the concept of equanimity to this extended range, we can experience the entire range as equally valuable and let our wisdom guide our response to the various stimuli that previously broke our stability.

The next level of expanded range includes the experiences at the outside edge where "normal" people lose stability. At first, we may not be able to experience it fully or keep our reactions completely guided by our wisdom, but we are growing to a range of experience unheard of by most. As we gain understanding and skills, we find that we can comfortably live in this expanded range while acting well within the boundaries of acceptable behavior. Eventually we can get to full intensity of experience while maintaining self-mastery and equanimity.

We get our first glimpse of "the other side" when we begin to understand the furthest reaches of experience. This is the part that generates tremendous fear in those who cling to the old beliefs. So many people have fallen off the edge that we believe it to be a law of the universe. Just like in Columbus' day, people today are convinced that the world is as we believe it to be.

As we develop understanding, discipline, mind skills, and wisdom, we begin to be able to function even in extreme states of depression, mania, hallucination, and delusion. Our range of experience at this point is beyond the ability to comprehend by all but a few people who have been there.

Once we find that we can function in these extreme ranges of experience, we begin to develop a completely new perspective.

We fully realize the Bipolar Advantage when we reach equanimity across the entire range of experience. Once there, it becomes as obvious as the new world was to Columbus; we see the ignorance in the old paradigm.

If the goal in life is to live it more fully, which has the advantage?

Once our lives are "in order," we have a whole new perspective. Like the story of Christopher Columbus, until we see the other side, we have a hard time believing that the world is not as others tell us. I fully understand why people view depression, mania, hallucination, and delusion as just "illnesses" or "disorders." They have not yet seen the other side or believe it to be possible. Without the perspective of experience, they cannot understand why I see it differently.

This perspective shines a much clearer light on the idea that mental states can be an advantage. Once our lives are "in order," depression, mania, hallucination, delusion, and the many mixed states in between can be tremendous advantages in our lives. The experiences become something that would be sorely missed if we had to go without them. Once "in order," it is clearly an advantage to have our condition.

When we see the whole picture, we understand how the parts fit together into a beautiful work of art.

• http://www.quotegarden.com/perspective.html
  
• Wootton, Tom, The Depression Advantage, 2007 Bipolar Advantage Publishers, CA, p.51-66
• Perlis, R.H.,Evidence-based strategies for achieving treatment goals in bipolar disorder: A review and synthesis of contemporary treatment guidelines., Journal of Current Psychosis and Theraputic Reports, V1N 2 December, 2003, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.