In a recent conversation, a friend of mine brought up an interesting question-are people today really that messed up, or are we all just weak?
Doesn’t it seem like everyone you know has a disorder of some kind? Maybe this has been more my experience since I live in Utah, Prozac capital of the world, and, even worse, grew up in Park City-where therapists and disorders are as much in fashion as studded-cowboy hats. (“Who are you seeing? Oh fabulous, I hear he is fantastic-especially in bed.” Alright I took that one a little too far.)
Really though, nowadays it’s like match your mental dysfunction with the appropriate fix. It makes you wonder-what did people do in the olden days when they felt down or crazy? Why are we modern folk having such a hard time?
The answer came to me, as it often does, after reading my Rob Brezsny horoscope. (If you don’t base at least some of your life on your Rob Brezsny horoscope, you are living at a serious disadvantage.)
In the horoscope, Brezsny talks about how people now, more than ever, resist the urge to cry. Olden- days folk cried far more than we now do.
Here is the answer to our mental health woes my friends. Morph Bill-and-Ted style (but with “Wayne’s World” music) back into, let’s say, Shakespearean times. What were the average town folk doing besides living in squalor and dying of the plague? They were crying, drinking wine or having sex-in no particular order.
This is where we go wrong. Modern people, alright modern American people, have no real form of release. We don’t cry or freak out often for fear that other people will think we’re crazy.
Olden-days people didn’t think twice about crying-not even the men. Look at all the plays, its like, “Oh, thou drinkest, and cryest, and maketh love by the hearth.” (This Shakespeare comparison has gotten a little out of hand, but I hope you get the gist.)
Holding everything inside is no good-no wonder we feel crazy.
The world is full of too much intense stuff to not cry every now and then. I aim to cry/freak out at least four times a year just to detoxify.
Showing emotion, stress, anxiety or being overly excited about everything (threw that one in for me) doesn’t make you crazy. Hey, it’s those quiet types who sit around and think of things to blow up.
Who can blame them, though, in a society where everything has to be controlled, calm and quiet to be sane.
Uptight and full of pent-up emotional, sexual, insert your own word ending in “al,” tension is absolutely no way to live life. Perhaps we will find that shedding a few tears, making up pointless Shakespeare metaphors, dancing with a metal goblet in hand or just getting laid will prove to be worthy cures for what ails us.