The Myth of Normal: Depression, Anxiety and Addictions from a New Perspective

For all our progress in understanding and treating mental illness, it continues to be a subject of misapprehension, prejudice and stigmatization. The reason for that may be not its strangeness but its familiarity. Very few individuals or families are not touched by at least some aspects of mental dysfunction, some periods of the discouragement, disconnect or anxiety that, on a deeper and more chronic level, characterizes the mind state of the mentally ill. And beyond individual experience or predisposition, many factors in this stress and confused culture conduce to mental malfunction on a broad social scale. This talk will explore the causes and “normality” of depression, anxiety and addictions in our society.