Positive Anger

In an attempt to socialize everyone into an insane society, we must label children who are angry with an imaginary disease. It's called Oppositional Defiant Disorder:

"A type of disruptive behavior disorder characterized by repeated defiance, hostility, disobedience and negative behavior towards people in authority."

I've met plenty of kids who have this diagnosis. Not one of them was lacking in reasons to be angry.

Unfortunately, there are not enough positively angry adults who are advocating for these kids. There are not enough adults with the courage to say to them, "I hear you. I understand why you are angry."

These kids will grow up to be drug addicts, criminals, or chronically "mentally ill." A few of them will survive and assimilate well into the system that tells them they are wrong, flawed, and sick.

Unfortunately, most adults who've been angry youth have not survived to give kids hope because we ourselves have succumbed to the myths.

I struggled with my own demoralization, which I used to call depression. I decided to trade it in for what I'm calling Positve Anger.

If you've been told you have these so-called diseases. . .

depression
bipolar disorder
borderline personality disorder
addiction
anxiety disorder
post-traumatic stress disorder

. . .ad nauseum. . .

Consider instead that you may simply have dis-ease. It may be painful. It may be horribly painful. Perhaps you feel like numbing your problems away with drugs, alcohol, or are hoping against hope that the doc will find the right drug to fix you.

Consider instead that your dis-ease is okay. Pain is nature's way of telling us that something is wrong. Some of us, perhaps, feel pain more acutely than others, but once upon a time, people who suffered more than others were. . .

shamans
artists
musicians
mystics
story-tellers
philosophers

. . .amongst other things. We had a place in society. We told young people like us that it was okay to be oneself.

Image note: I can not explain it.