Here’s one especially thought provoking paragraph from Dr. Awais Aftab’s New York Times essay, “We’re Thinking About Mental Health Diagnoses All Wrong”.

“The symptoms of mental illness reinforce one another. An important theory in psychiatry, known as network theory, posits that mental health problems emerge from symptoms pushing and pulling on one another in self-reinforcing loops. Being unable to sleep can fuel daytime nervousness; nervousness can drain energy; low energy can lead to social isolation; isolation can worsen depressive rumination; and rumination can make it difficult to sleep. And so on. Symptoms are often triggered by life stressors, but once the symptom arrangement becomes self-sustaining, it continues on long after the stressor has disappeared.”

I liked the essay, but found it a little too abstract for my peabrain. I wish Aftab had illuminated his intriguing insights with examples from his patients’ lives. I assume, maybe incorrectly, that therapists can finesse client-patient privilege by tweaking contexts and names.

Aftab’s readers, unsurprisingly with bigger brains than me, embraced his insights sans examples. Dig this top comment.

Awais Aftab for the win.