It's just the alcohol talking

There could have been a more appropriate title to this post, but this is as good as it gets. What they don't tell you while growing up is that you shouldn't let your imagination run wild. They tell you to use your imagination and let your creativity flow. So, there is no harm in day dreaming. All children day dream in their childhood, some even have imaginary friends. They talk to them as if they were real. None of the adults find it strange. It is an acceptable behavior. No one challenges their sanity.

But can an adult do the same? Can you and I have imaginary friends? Can we at least talk to real people and have imaginary conversations?

Some of you may be already wondering where is this discussion going?

To be frank this has its root in a TV series about a Psychologist and a Therapist. The different cases she deals with are quite frankly eerily familiar. Some of the behaviors exhibited by her patients has such a familiar feeling. It just made we wonder, what is the line between sanity and insanity? Who defines sanity? How do we define sanity?

We don't define Sanity. We can only define what the deviations are from Sanity. Doesn't this make it completely prudish and dictated by social, communal, racial boundaries? What is perhaps acceptable in one culture may completely ridiculous in another.

But cultural diversity is not under discussion here. This is really more about the individual.

Can depression manifest itself in physical illness? The mind is such a powerful object. I am sometimes in awe and fear of it. It can let you take leaps of imagination, flights of fantasy and even turn on itself and self destruct.

You could for instance pick up a bottle of RUM and try to become an alcoholic just to see whether one addiction can release you from another obsession. Does that make you a psychologically handicapped person?

You could also for the sake of argument have imaginary conversation and spent days with an individual, sharing thoughts and laughter, all right inside your mind. Do this for a prolonged period, and all of it starts seeming so real, you almost turn side ways to talk to them aloud. If you do that you would be a very good choice for a visit to the Shrink. If you don't, you just remain in your delusion till you actually meet the imaginary person, and realize that the dream world does not transcend into the physical world around you. How is it that an outwardly normal [sic] person can go about life without anyone suspecting the obsessive nature of the individual? How every little possession is hoarded into boxes, and plastic wraps?

May be mental illness need not be so uncommon. May be we are all a little dented in the head and have some wiring gone wrong.

May be it is not necessary to like and love the same person, may be it is okay to want two different people at the same time. May be life is not always about two choices. May be life doesn't need to be divided between Normal and Abnormal, acceptable and unacceptable.