Insanity is one of those things that most
psychological texts attempt to categorize, illustrate, and analyze, but never
outright define. Indeed, from some standpoints, insanity and sanity are too
relative to the individual and his circumstances to be given any single,
all-encompassing definition. There are, however, several key factors to be
noted among the various “forms” of insanity known to modern mental health
experts.
What can drive someone to insanity? Certainly,
insanity is something that is commonly understood (or misunderstood) and
usually carries some sort of stigma in the popular consciousness. If you
believe in modern psychology and psychiatry, there are literally thousands of
forms of insanity that a person can end up developing over a lifetime. Some of
them, like depression, are temporary, while others, like social anxiety,
require more work for a person to get through. However, there appears to be
some commonality as to what actually brings about most of the forms of insanity
that people go through. Which brings the question to bear: is there a common,
underlying trigger that compromises the stability of a person's mental health?
Things like stress and anxiety are
often cited, as most of the common (and several uncommon) mental health issues
are triggered by one of the two. Continued exposure to stress can eventually
push someone beyond their “breaking point,” with the form of insanity afterwards
being affected by external factors. This is often a long, strenuous process
because most people have some level of resistance to such things, allowing them
to at least survive the stressful period with their sanity intact.
Additionally, the process may not even really result in insanity, with most of
the population serving as proof of this theory. Prolonged stress can affect a
person's behavior and outlook, but it is also known that several other factors
can increase or reduce the impact of this. In some cases, stress and anxiety
can merely even have the opposite effect, depending on the person's personal
outlook.
Emotions are also said to play a
critical role in driving or pushing people into insanity, with feelings being
so closely tied to mental health. A person's emotional state can often be a
reflection of a person's relative state of mental stability, but may also
become an effect of fractured sanity. There is no doubting that emotions can
disrupt and affect a person's thought processes and make them do things that
they normally would not do. It has also been noted that extremely emotional
situations and heavy emotional trauma can permanently affect a person's mind,
often resulting in a condition that requires therapy to eventually overcome.
However, it is rather arguable that emotions are merely augmenting the effects
of stress and pressure, not a factor in itself.
Trauma is also frequently cited as
having drastic effects on a person's sanity, particularly if it occurs during
the formative years. The extreme psychological and emotional impact that trauma
victims have to endure can often force some past the breaking point, having
permanent effects on their mental health. However, it should be noted that
trauma tends to be little more than a combination of stressful and emotional
factors, usually mixed in with extreme circumstances. The vulnerability of the
person's psyche plays a larger role here than in other potential causes of
insanity, which explains why trauma encountered later on in life does not have
the same general effect as similar events encountered during childhood.
Ultimately, insanity is something
that, like sanity, must be defined on an individual basis. What is sane for one
person in a given society may not be considered such by a different person
within the same society. Insanity is a matter of context in this case, which is
the assumption that some psychological texts make.
