To the curious explorer reading, whether you yourself experience this or have a friend or loved one who does, at some capacity mental illness affects you. In writing this article, my hope is to shed some light on mental illness. As well as have empathy for those who experience mental illness and how to be there for them. From my experience, I will be speaking from the lens of anxiety, depression and Bipolar II. So darling, wake up from under the tree and fall with me down the rabbit hole.
Having a mental illness is sort of like falling down a rabbit hole. The white rabbit represents the triggers that haunt you and lead you into the dark tunnel to spiral out of control into the rabbit hole. With his appearance, he hurriedly shows up in an anxious manner giving you no choice but to keep up. When you free fall down, you lose control. Just as Alice waves goodbye to her cat, you wave goodbye to having any semblance of control.
The white rabbit, with his watch of gold, is there to promptly remind you that he is the one who is leading you through Wonderland. I will now revert to the scene in Alice in Wonderland with the many doors. She continues to open each door only to find another and another. It can feel hopeless and like you’re on this unknowing quest through Wonderland (your mind). With treatment for mental illness, it feels like you’re trying to open any door that you can to experience some amount of relief.
Alice reaches a room where she is prompted by the door handle to “drink me, or eat me.” This very much entails what it’s like to try medication to treat your mental illness symptoms. Oftentimes you have to try different meds, dosages and treatments to see which will prove to be most effective. She states, “goodness knows what this will do,” and the door knob replies “a little of this will go a long way,” which is sort of like you taking the gamble with the prescriber on whether or not the drugs will mask the symptoms or make them worse.
Some of these medications prove to be very similar to the scene in which Alice experiences uncomfortable side effects. Making herself smaller and taller, she leads herself to the “pool of tears.” This is the point in which every mental illness patient reaches the feeling of hopelessness. Like, “I’ve tried X,Y, & Z yet I still don’t feel better.” Not to worry though, Alice continues on her quest through Wonderland trying every avenue that will eventually lead her back home. My final point is where she meets the Cheshire Cat, this is sort of like finding a good therapist who can genuinely help you. The haunting line, “But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here.”