It would be easy and probably popular to make fun of that notion. Some people have such an approach to their mental illness. It is probably more healthy than the self-loathing my illness causes in my mind. In some sense one can be envious for not having such a self-love for oneself. Honestly I don't want to ridicule anyone who consideres their mental illness a superpower but for me it feels utterly bizarre. Moreover the people I met who genuinely thought that their illness was some sort of a superpower were either psychotic or manic. As someone who experienced that I can say I really thought my illness would be amazing, it would increase stamina, power-levels etc. Though when you crash into deep depression and see through how the game really works you rather think of your illness as curse. This is what happened to me.
I searched for mental illness and superpower on the internet. I was too lazy to read the whole articles but they gave Kanye West (bipolar) as a positive example. The article was written in 2020 though.
There were two things that initiated my thoughts on this topic. A person in this forum who I considered pretty interesting and a potentially a cool guy explained self-hatred caused inter alia due to autism. I have a friend in real life with autism. He is not really that cool but I can have good conversations with him. Asperger or autism can come along with special interests and high intelligence. A therapist once suspected I had asperger or autism. I still forget sometimes what the difference is. I probably do not have that disorder. It is true I have an intense love for politics but my social skills are too high for it. This is at least what other professionals told me. The truth probably was the time without antipsychotics temporarily damaged my sanity and social skills. This is why I acted weird.
I think it is probably a good and positive framing to look at the positive things in your life. It sounds insane but even the most horrifying conditions can have some slight positive side effects. I think I am more self-aware since my illnesses destroyed my life. I think I have more empathy for vulnerable people. My illness caused processes of self-reflection. Of course the illness is not worth it. And there are way less painful ways to learn such a lesson. To think in such a way can make you feel more comfortable with you inner self. Maybe it is a way to find inner peace for some people.
However personally I cannot think of my mind as superpower. It sounds pathological. I don't want to ruin that concept for anyone. But I can say at the least the people I met who had such a notion of their illness where how I can I put it in a friendly way.....clinically insane.
I already elaborated on them. There was a drug dealer in the clinic for psychosis who proudly claimed to be an antisemite and considered his psychosis as superpower. I wish I could say more positive about the people I met with this way of thinking. But most of them seemed to be pretty delusional or very ignorant. I mean ignorance can be a bliss. I have an acquaintance. I have less contact with him because some of his statements were very disgusting. He worships IQ. He has asperger syndrome. And he has better life quality because of his positive notion of his illness. Me instead I am very self-loathing. Though we both seem to quite insular. He is not delusional but very ignorant. I think one guy he likes called his asperger a superpower because it allegedly increases his IQ. So if you worship intelligence and think your illness has increased your IQ that is probably a very positive step to accept your illness. However he is in other relations very ignorant. He insults unemployed people and he himself has no job and is not looking for one. He calls leftwingers mentally ill. He calls people with a different sexual orientation mentally ill etc.
I mean if you look down at people all the time and suck of yourself without a break...if this makes you feel better? I still would not recommend it. I think he is pretty harmless because he is not harrassing people. But he seems to be very ignorant and not self-aware at all.
As I said I wish I could give better examples of people who considered their illness as superpower. I just insert a link to two articles I skimmed through to give you another perspective.
www.nationalreview.com
I agree with the second one more. It says this framing of mental illness as superpower underestimates the dangers that can come along with it. Like dangerous psychosis or manic episodes which ruin you financially, healt-wise, personal life etc.
When I was not fully aware about the consequences of my illness I also sometimes had similar thoughts. Not exactly superpower (because I consider that magical thinking) but sometimes that the illness strengthens me (like the abuse). However when I fully understood the associated pain and horrible effects of my illness I rather considered it as cyncial to call it a superpower. Maybe a little bit insulting because it is such a euphemism. Though if it works for other people I don't want to ruin it for them. It would be just dishonest to give you another take on it. Because these are my honest feelings.
In the clinic where I was the therapists also tried to ease my shame with comparisons to famous mentally ill people. The first one was John Nash (A beautiful mind.) For the people who were less self-aware, clinically insane (it is just the truth) this notion was easier to accept and some internalized it very fast. So maybe congitive skills can worsen your mood and life quality because it can reinforce negative feelings and thought loops. For the others it was easier to accept such a simplistic notion of reality. Maybe logic is not always equivalent to truth. Or at least not to happpiness.
I searched for mental illness and superpower on the internet. I was too lazy to read the whole articles but they gave Kanye West (bipolar) as a positive example. The article was written in 2020 though.
There were two things that initiated my thoughts on this topic. A person in this forum who I considered pretty interesting and a potentially a cool guy explained self-hatred caused inter alia due to autism. I have a friend in real life with autism. He is not really that cool but I can have good conversations with him. Asperger or autism can come along with special interests and high intelligence. A therapist once suspected I had asperger or autism. I still forget sometimes what the difference is. I probably do not have that disorder. It is true I have an intense love for politics but my social skills are too high for it. This is at least what other professionals told me. The truth probably was the time without antipsychotics temporarily damaged my sanity and social skills. This is why I acted weird.
I think it is probably a good and positive framing to look at the positive things in your life. It sounds insane but even the most horrifying conditions can have some slight positive side effects. I think I am more self-aware since my illnesses destroyed my life. I think I have more empathy for vulnerable people. My illness caused processes of self-reflection. Of course the illness is not worth it. And there are way less painful ways to learn such a lesson. To think in such a way can make you feel more comfortable with you inner self. Maybe it is a way to find inner peace for some people.
However personally I cannot think of my mind as superpower. It sounds pathological. I don't want to ruin that concept for anyone. But I can say at the least the people I met who had such a notion of their illness where how I can I put it in a friendly way.....clinically insane.
I already elaborated on them. There was a drug dealer in the clinic for psychosis who proudly claimed to be an antisemite and considered his psychosis as superpower. I wish I could say more positive about the people I met with this way of thinking. But most of them seemed to be pretty delusional or very ignorant. I mean ignorance can be a bliss. I have an acquaintance. I have less contact with him because some of his statements were very disgusting. He worships IQ. He has asperger syndrome. And he has better life quality because of his positive notion of his illness. Me instead I am very self-loathing. Though we both seem to quite insular. He is not delusional but very ignorant. I think one guy he likes called his asperger a superpower because it allegedly increases his IQ. So if you worship intelligence and think your illness has increased your IQ that is probably a very positive step to accept your illness. However he is in other relations very ignorant. He insults unemployed people and he himself has no job and is not looking for one. He calls leftwingers mentally ill. He calls people with a different sexual orientation mentally ill etc.
I mean if you look down at people all the time and suck of yourself without a break...if this makes you feel better? I still would not recommend it. I think he is pretty harmless because he is not harrassing people. But he seems to be very ignorant and not self-aware at all.
As I said I wish I could give better examples of people who considered their illness as superpower. I just insert a link to two articles I skimmed through to give you another perspective.
Mental Illness Is Not a Superpower | National Review
The modern Left’s full-spectrum devotion to equality gives it a strange relationship to social norms and to health.
www.nationalreview.com
I agree with the second one more. It says this framing of mental illness as superpower underestimates the dangers that can come along with it. Like dangerous psychosis or manic episodes which ruin you financially, healt-wise, personal life etc.
When I was not fully aware about the consequences of my illness I also sometimes had similar thoughts. Not exactly superpower (because I consider that magical thinking) but sometimes that the illness strengthens me (like the abuse). However when I fully understood the associated pain and horrible effects of my illness I rather considered it as cyncial to call it a superpower. Maybe a little bit insulting because it is such a euphemism. Though if it works for other people I don't want to ruin it for them. It would be just dishonest to give you another take on it. Because these are my honest feelings.
In the clinic where I was the therapists also tried to ease my shame with comparisons to famous mentally ill people. The first one was John Nash (A beautiful mind.) For the people who were less self-aware, clinically insane (it is just the truth) this notion was easier to accept and some internalized it very fast. So maybe congitive skills can worsen your mood and life quality because it can reinforce negative feelings and thought loops. For the others it was easier to accept such a simplistic notion of reality. Maybe logic is not always equivalent to truth. Or at least not to happpiness.
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