Have you ever noticed how, in mental health circles, when someone is diagnosed as having a "break from reality," it’s treated as a serious problem? The assumption is that reality is this fixed, stable thing, and if your experience doesn’t match it, you’re the one who’s off. But… what if we’ve all been living in a collective illusion, and a healthy break from reality is exactly what we need?
I mean, let’s face it—reality is not what it seems. We all walk around believing that what we see, hear, and experience is the truth, but really, we’re just experiencing our own personal thought-created version of the world. Every single one of us. Two people can watch the same movie, hear the same speech, or get caught in the same traffic jam, and yet have completely different experiences of it. Not because of the event itself, but because of what’s going on in their own minds.
And yet, society collectively agrees on this idea that there’s one solid, external reality we should all conform to. If your version strays too far from the agreed-upon narrative, you get labeled as having a “disorder.” But if you really think about it, isn’t that kind of hilarious? We’re all living in our own thought-generated realities, convinced that we’re perceiving an objective world, and the moment someone sees something too differently, we say, "Whoa there, buddy. You’re not seeing reality correctly. Get back in line."
Now, don’t get me wrong—I’m not downplaying the very real suffering that can come with extreme mental states. But what if mental health wasn’t just about diagnosing and managing symptoms, but also about seeing through the illusion of a fixed reality? What if true well-being comes from realizing that nobody is seeing reality as it actually is, and that’s okay? What if waking up to that fact is actually the opposite of insanity?
Imagine a world where people understood this. Where kids grew up knowing that their feelings come from their thinking, not the outside world. Where governments, economies, and media stopped operating under the false assumption that external circumstances create well-being. Where people didn’t take their thoughts so seriously and weren’t held hostage by their own minds. That kind of "break from reality" could be the most freeing thing imaginable.
Maybe, instead of fearing a break from reality, we should be embracing a fresh perspective on what reality even is. Because once we see through the illusion, we’re not trapped in it anymore. And that sounds like the best mental health strategy I can think of.