Een klein gesprek

Er was eens een jongen die probeerde het kleinste gebaar ooit te doen. Zo klein dat het geen enkele impact zou hebben, dacht hij. Als ik nou de allerkleinste muizenstap doe die niemand merkt?

De jongen sprak iemand aan. Ik zeg maar één of twee woorden, dacht de jongen. Eén of twee woorden maken niets uit. Dat zijn zo weinig woorden, dat merkt niemand.

De jongen sprak twee woorden uit. Plots gebeurde er iets. Er ontstond een woordenstroom, een grote woordenstroom die maar niet stopte. Hij praatte en praatte en praatte. De ander luisterde geïnteresseerd, en sprak terug, en ze spraken nog dagen en dagen.

Stem

Er was eens een jongen die zo verliefd was op zijn eigen stem dat hij hem alleen voor zichzelf hield. Hij vond het zo'n mooie stem, zo eentje die zacht klonk met een rauw randje. Het liefst stond hij thuis voor de spiegel om tegen zichzelf te praten.

Pijn

"Ik probeer altijd de pijn te voelen," zegt Marie. "Dat doe ik als ik niets te doen heb. Dan ga ik naar de ergste pijn in mijn lichaam en probeer ik die te voelen. Het lucht altijd op."

A Small Conversation

Once there was a boy who tried to make the smallest gesture ever. So small that it would have no impact at all, he thought. What if I take the tiniest mouse step, one that no one even notices?

The boy spoke to someone. I'll only say one or two words, he thought. One or two words don't matter. That's so few words that no one will notice.

The boy spoke two words. Suddenly, something happened. A stream of words began to flow, a great river of words that simply would not stop. He talked and talked and talked. The other person listened with genuine interest, replied, and they kept talking for days and days.

Voice

Once there was a boy who loved his own voice so much that he kept it all to himself. He thought it was such a beautiful voice, soft, with a rough edge to it. More than anything, he loved standing in front of the mirror at home, talking to himself.

Pain

"I always try to feel the pain," says Marie. "Whenever I have nothing to do, I go to the place in my body where the pain is strongest, and I try to really feel it. It always brings relief."

Beautiful

The way you see the world is beautiful. No one will ever see the world the way you do. Cherish that.

Exactly like that. Half curious, with an open gaze, full of emotion. Cherish that. That is how we learn from one another. Learn from people who see the world differently. Who look at the very same thing and see something else.

Look at yourself with gentle eyes. With emotion. Life is emotion; life is not a set of rules or thoughts. It has multiple layers of depth, like a painting.

From a place of calm.

Mooi

Hoe jij naar de wereld kijkt, is schitterend. Er gaat nooit meer iemand naar de wereld kijken zoals jij dat doet. Koester dat.

Precies zo, ja. Half nieuwsgierig, open blik, veel emotie. Koester dat. Zo leren we van elkaar. Leer van mensen die anders naar de wereld kijken. Die anders naar hetzelfde kijken.

Kijk met zachte ogen naar jezelf. Met emotie. Het leven is emotie; het leven is geen set van regels of gedachten. Het heeft meerdere lagen diepte, zoals een schilderij.

Vanuit de rust.

I have a very simple theory.

1

I think most people have all psychiatric "diseases." The difference is the duration and intensity at any given state.

I like to see it like this: our bodies go through different energy states during the day. This is a continuous process, with binary plateaus.

I have never met anyone without OCD. The problem is that science would say: it's not OCD when it's not a problem in your day-to-day life. I disagree. I think the nuance that everybody has it, yet some experience it for much shorter periods during the day, is a very important nuance.

Most people are not very observant when it comes to their psychiatric state of being. I see people with mania, for example, who become highly energized for months and then collapse. That is not a disease; that is a way of distributing your energy.

Or people with ADHD who, when they are in the zone, operate their bodies at a higher voltage than other people. This produces different output. It's a higher intensity for a shorter period of time. That's why they are distracted for 95% of the rest of the time.

2

Most psychiatric diseases are self-taught behaviors that develop over a long period of time.

For example: blocking your own voice. Blocking your own voice.

This can lead, over 10 or 20 years, to psychiatric diseases that are hard to spot because both patients and doctors can't see what is happening.

Autism = spending a lot of overall energy per second (per frame, so to say). It's like seeing a lot of detail in a painting, which takes a lot of energy. Therefore: meltdowns.

ADHD = higher intensity during a given state. For example: 5 minutes of hyperfocus, followed by 55 minutes of low voltage (directed).

Manic states = a few months at a high voltage, followed by a collapse.

Note: Everything I described is about the body's overall energy. People with ADHD in hyperfocus are tuned in with every fiber of their body.

We have ADHD and autism running in our family, so I stress-tested this theory. This ended up in a psychosis. All of these are imbalances in the body's overall energy, which you tackle using religious principles, such as taking a moment of silence.

The moment of observation is in the middle. You can't see it from there. Start with the middle.