Seven Deadly Sins

Posted on May 12, 2005 in Compassion Depression Morals & Ethics Reading

My copy of Andrew Solomon’s The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression has disappeared so I can’t quote from it, but somewhere in there he mentions how the Church talked about the sin of Sloth, which in modern terms translates to depression. Solomon came to mind when I found a link on Michael Gate’s blog to Not Proud, a site which collects online confessions and categorizes them under specific sins.

Each of the Seven Deadly Sins can be assigned to a Mood or Anxiety Disorder. For example, as Solomon observes, depression was called Sloth. Gluttony is certainly associated with depression and mania as well as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Pride, Lust, and Greed fly with the Manic state of bipolar disorder. Anger and Envy can be either depression or mania.

That there exist people like John Blackwell (The Noonday Demon : Recognizing and Conquering the Deadly Sin of Sloth) who attempts to piggyback off Solomon’s compassionate work about depression suggests to me that many have not learned that these syndromes are biological in nature. Those who do them don’t sin: they act, in part, because of biochemical imbalances in the brain, something which has been well-documented by science.

I know that my anger, for example, is in more manageable bounds now that I take medications. It is true that I have to do more such as practice assertiveness, ask myself if this is really worth it, etc., but I have noticed that I am less likely to be bothered with trivial things, which leaves me the energy to stand for those issues which matter –like sunsets and whether my cacti need watering.

And here I make a stand for the medical model of mental illness. One reason why many mentally ill people resist treatment is that some treat these symptoms as character flaws. Face it: no one wants to be seen as a bad person. And if you proceed from the point of view that “they did it to themselves” you will receive a hostile reaction every time. Such people often build coalitions to promote the idea that their disease is OK because it is generally held in our society that people who suffer from mental illness are untrustworthy and dangerous to others. The fact is that mentally ill people commit less than 2% of all crime and those who do are likely to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. (Most crime, in fact, is committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol.) Mental illness occurs for genetic reasons and because of societal stresses. Some stay mentally ill because changing society in meaningful ways seems pretty darned helpless.

When I started seeing my mood swings as a disease, I lost guilt. I still sometimes feel shame for my actions and their products, but that’s a different emotion. Guilt damns you: shame serves as a warning flag that maybe you’re allowing your moods to get out of control. That’s how it works for me. I don’t hold on to shame. Guilt says “I am a bad person”. Shame says “That was wrong/bad/unhealthy for me to do.”

This disease gets the better of me if I don’t watch for it. I am not like what we call “the normies” in that I experience especially low moods and especially high ones for sustained periods of time. When I am in those moods, I lose sight of reality. Vigilance helps me see when the little blue balls in my head are bouncing around too much or not moving at all. Then I can take steps to sooth my situation and help my body return to a more stable mood.

These shifts often occur for no reason. And when I am in them, I am likely to “commit One of the Seven Deadly Sins”. I may be able to show constraint, but the strong urge is there and it is hard, very hard to curb it without the help of my medications.

So while I recognize that the Seven Deadly Sins are, as such, a poor model, I also say that they represent symptoms of mental illness. Perhaps those who invented them saw people getting out of control around them and acting destructively: and they just didn’t understand that the people who exhibited these behaviors were struggling with mood and anxiety disorders. The medieval moralists used the only model they understood, pushed the strangest and poorest ones onto their ships of fools, and relegated the rest to one of the pits of Hell.

The medical model seeks to ennoble those who have these diseases. I often remind friends “It’s just a disease that you have. Not a curse. Just a disease.” And yet, despite the advances of Science, people can be damned cruel and damned defensive. The cruel call people like me names. The defensive often join them as they deny their illness. Their message is often the same as the cruel: you’re only pretending to be sick. (And then they do drugs, drink alcohol or overeat.) To be “out” like me is to offer myself to danger. I am not saying that it is beautiful to be bipolar. I don’t claim any special rights except this: the right to decent treatment for my condition and the right to dignity — which belongs to every human being.

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Why not eight deadly sins? One behavior that is missing is Obsession. It’s a little like Envy, but it involves fixed fascination. I pick at my fingers for example. I know a fellow who has to bow whenever he sees a religious statue or object of any denomination. I have known a woman who took a drill to her teeth because she did not like the shape of her jaw. Would these not qualify as sins? Did the Church simply fail to notice because it was too busy obsessing over what was sinful and what wasn’t? You decide.

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I think I am getting a little hypomanic today. I’ve written and written on all kinds of subjects. And it doesn’t seem that I will stop unless I start recognizing the behaviors.

I heard recently of a study in which they discovered that stroke victims with damage to a certain part of the brain will deny and deny obvious disabilities. “What’s wrong with your eye?” “I don’t want to open it.” The same areas of the brain are where mania ripples. If we manics do not watch, our moods may get the better of us. The medications help return us to a place where we just don’t feel like allowing our compulsions to run away with us.

When I am in mania, it isn’t that I can’t see. It is that I might not see because the mood is so overpowering. And to get to a healthier place takes slow work and the help of medications. I have never been able to “snap out” of either a depression or a mania. That’s just another vestige of the Sin Model in action. And it causes sufferers to lose heart as they try to ride out their awful feelings. It makes them believe that they cannot contribute or trust anything they think or feel.

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Maybe there is a Ninth Deadly Sin? Writing and Talking Too Damn Fast?