Can a human being be irretrievably broken?
From a physical perspective, doctors often talk about the point of no return. Regardless of the original pathology or the timeline of disease progression, there is usually some intangible point at which one stands before the very reality of death. This is the very last point where medical intervention may save life. Going beyond it is like being on an escalator to heaven with no stop points to get off.
What about psychological brokenness? I have often wondered how patients came to be so terribly broken. Stories of abuse, maltreatment and horrible relationships are incredibly heartbreaking, and it never fails to amaze me how human beings can hurt each other so much. Some people get into a rut, an endless cycle of self hatred and harm, followed by some completely unrelated intervention (an ICU stay, anyone?), some other random "treatments" and then back to it. Some people spend their entire lives on psychotropic medications, trying to "control" their mental illness which is a manifestation of all the problems they have had in their lives. A few manage to escape the cycle and lead a seemingly normal life, but how normal are they really? How can one heal from being battered and bruised? Is there a threshold beyond which it is not possible to heal again?
It's like a vase that has been broken into a thousand pieces. With some sort of roadmap, one can try to put the pieces together. External help like counselling, loved ones, and (maybe) drugs can behave like glue that allows you to stick the pieces together. It takes a numbingly long time. The end result is infinitely more fragile than the original thing, and it is never ever the same. Can it still function? maybe, in the rare occasions that people manage the impossible feat of putting it back into a normal shape. Otherwise you live with a pile of broken pieces for the rest of your life...
From a physical perspective, doctors often talk about the point of no return. Regardless of the original pathology or the timeline of disease progression, there is usually some intangible point at which one stands before the very reality of death. This is the very last point where medical intervention may save life. Going beyond it is like being on an escalator to heaven with no stop points to get off.
What about psychological brokenness? I have often wondered how patients came to be so terribly broken. Stories of abuse, maltreatment and horrible relationships are incredibly heartbreaking, and it never fails to amaze me how human beings can hurt each other so much. Some people get into a rut, an endless cycle of self hatred and harm, followed by some completely unrelated intervention (an ICU stay, anyone?), some other random "treatments" and then back to it. Some people spend their entire lives on psychotropic medications, trying to "control" their mental illness which is a manifestation of all the problems they have had in their lives. A few manage to escape the cycle and lead a seemingly normal life, but how normal are they really? How can one heal from being battered and bruised? Is there a threshold beyond which it is not possible to heal again?
It's like a vase that has been broken into a thousand pieces. With some sort of roadmap, one can try to put the pieces together. External help like counselling, loved ones, and (maybe) drugs can behave like glue that allows you to stick the pieces together. It takes a numbingly long time. The end result is infinitely more fragile than the original thing, and it is never ever the same. Can it still function? maybe, in the rare occasions that people manage the impossible feat of putting it back into a normal shape. Otherwise you live with a pile of broken pieces for the rest of your life...
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