Note: I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist, or any other kind of mental health professional. These are personal observations, not clinical studies (which would take volumes to cover properly anyway). They need to be taken in that light: I am sharing what I believe I have seen, in the hopes it may give my readers something to think about. My conclusions are my own, you can take them or leave them … or even better, make your own observation in the comments.
There is a type of person who is nearly always melancholy; they tend to look at things in the worst light, and can find the cloud for every silver lining. Others say they are being negative, but they believe they are just being realistic. They focus on unpleasant truths, and fail to consider that those are not the entire story. They may brush off unwarranted optimism, but they also brush off the reasonable version of optimism that gives people hope and a will to overcome. They do not overcome things, they endure them.
They are trapped in a prison of the mind. Often, they honestly can’t see past their negative viewpoint. Those not afflicted in the same way don’t understand: they think it is just an indulgence, something they could snap out of if they only tried. But it is a mental and emotional prison; not only do they not have the key to the prison door, they usually aren’t aware there even is a door. Offer them an escape, and they’ll tell you why it’s not possible, or why perhaps someone else can do it, but they cannot. They only see the world and their lives through this filter, and it has become their reality. A psychiatrist might call this mindset clinical depression, and mental health professionals will tell you it’s treatable. But often the afflicted isn’t looking for treatment, they are so caught up in their prison that they consider it their lot in life … it is how they are, and how they will always be.
There is another type of person that is relentlessly cheerful. They believe that if they have a positive attitude, it will create opportunities … and it works out that way often enough that they consider it axiomatic. But even when it does not, they believe their attitude will change the facts. They face the world with a bright and smiling face, and they laugh in the face of trouble. But it isn’t because they are especially brave, it is exactly the opposite: it is because they don’t want to admit that bad things might even happen. When a situation appears that they cannot gloss over, they avoid it or pretend it doesn’t exist. They flit through life like a butterfly tasting flower after flower without ever considering the dark things that lurk on the ground, or the hungry spider that could trap them at any time.
These are also trapped in a prison of the mind. Their world is circumscribed by denial, and they cannot face ugly truths. Their good cheer and positive attitude is a construct, and not healthy optimism. They typically cannot be budged from their “don’t worry, be happy,” attitude because they think the moment they stop being “positive,” bad things are going to happen. They cannot look beyond it, because to do so might bring their entire world crashing down.
Among Christians (and I imagine this exists in other faiths as well, but I have little experience there, so I’ll mainly stick to the Christian flavor), there is yet another type that I consider an odd mix of both of the above. They say “praise the Lord,” and “Amen!” to every good thing that happens, and “the Lord’s will be done” for every event that is bad or unpleasant. They cultivate an attitude and a lifestyle that matches what they believe constitutes being a “good Christian.” They do all the right things and they say all the right things, and if they slip up, they have an answer for that too. In some, it manifests as a strict and overbearing reaction to sin and repentance; in others, an overly carefree and indulgent attitude to behavior in which almost anything can go, as long as the proper forms are observed afterwards. I cannot possibly list all the observations I have made on this: it varies with every creed and denomination, and every church culture within those denominations. But each local gathering has its particular way of looking at things, and within those groups, variants of this type of person proliferate.
These too are in a prison of the mind. They have decided in their head what a Christian (or whatever their faith may be) looks like, and they bend themselves utterly to fit the mold. They will not challenge the way they see things and the way they react to things, because that might rock their very faith. This is the mindset that produces fanatics and hyper-zealots … it is not at all that they are strong in their faith and steadfast in their devotion, it is that they are afraid to stray from the path they have set for themselves, and they defend it like their very life. And to really be inclusive, even atheists can be like this – some are downright militant against people of faith, even when those people’s beliefs can’t possibly affect them. But whatever the system of belief may be, there are those who mold all their behavior around it, and can accept no challenges. Many Christians might take exception to me saying this, but it is not the object of their faith I am challenging, but the way they live it out.
All of these types of mental prisons have one thing in common: at some point in their lives, the people affected have come to an erroneous conclusion about life and how it works, and they have incorporated it into their personal world view. Enough has happened to reinforce that view and strengthen it, to the point they cannot see outside it. I have given just a few examples really; it is prevalent almost to the point of being universal. Think of your conspiracists, anti-whatever crowds, fanatics … even seemingly innocent things like brand (or organization) loyalty. People are trapped by this, all the time. And some are trapped so utterly that it would take something cataclysmic to snap them out of it.
But what is the answer to dealing with this problem, short of such a catastrophe? Simply put, if not simply realized, it’s right thinking. The start is in realizing your thinking has somehow gone wrong. In many cases, you cannot do this without outside opinion: someone besides yourself, and not in your normal circles, pointing it out to you. Then, when it is pointed out, you have the obligation to yourself to evaluate what was said, however unpleasant, to see if it’s true. It’s always possible that this other might be the one that’s wrong, so you have to be careful, but you must accept the possibility they are seeing something you cannot. Then (oh, this is so easy to write, and so hard to do), determine where you have gone wrong and correct it. You must actively seek the truth, and not simply rest on what you currently perceive as true. And only then can you even begin to break out of the prison and truly live free.