In The Present

By Sandra Kiume

Merry Monday. It’s a Monday, just another day of the week, right? But no escaping that it is Christmas. No matter which religious holiday you celebrate during the festive season, it’s meant to be spent with family. Sharing and caring on a special day, and all that.

Then there’s waking up, maybe a little late, maybe sleeping in on this statutory holiday. Making some coffee, same as every day. Maybe it’s quiet. Lonely. A day about losses, all the family togetherness magnifying the significance of the loss. The day would be happy except…but you’ve got what you’ve got. It could be a day for acute grief and nostalgia, or, a day to stay in the present.

Stuff to read, then, fun and productive distractions. Learn something new. How about… a closer look at psychotic delusion and the person’s tendency to lose insight and not understand that there are symptoms of a mental illness.

Loss of insight can happen in bipolar I mania, schizophrenia, and other psychotic disorders and frustrates those trying to help as well as those experiencing it. Australia’s ABC radio program All In The Mind hosts a discussion about hearing voices and hearing truths, podcast and transcribed online. It gets into the subject of a recovery that incorporates psychosis, including the experiences of a man with a tattoo proclaiming, “Psychotic and proud.” (Picture not available, unfortunately.)

On another subject, if your reality is all too real consider a laugh. Read about contagious laughter, get engrossed in the cognitive science of humor, and watch this video. You may be compelled to laugh!