Mental illness shown in cards

Aurelious

I see the Queen of Cups personally for depression and anxiety. One particular reading I did I flipped her and shed a tear immediately, a huge welling of sadness and "felt like I couldn't escape" flooded over me.

But other cards mentioned here can reflect it as well.
 

Haunted Wood

Well, it depends what you mean by mental illness. Are you talking about severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia or a psychosis...or are you including mental issues which are much more minor, such as anxiety and depression, under the definition of mental illness? In my opinion we all have mental issues of some sort, and most people will suffer from things like anxiety, fear and depression at some point in their lives, but such things aren't mental illnesses. I also believe that we all experience ups and downs of moods, and this is most of the time natural. Certain situations in our lives too, can bring up anxiety, fears or periods of depression and that too is normal. There are also people's personalities to take into account. For example just because someone is introverted by nature and likes to be alone doesn't mean they have a problem like agorophobia. It would be really hard to read a card as a mental illness, because it might just be that they're going through some issues of anxiety or depression at that moment in time, or that they're a neurotic and introverted person. I think any of the cards could show mental issues or illness, there wouldn't be any one card. It would be really hard to pinpoint what it was exactly though...if it was a proper mental illness, or something else.

I've seen the moon more as internal fears and anxieties, and of being frightened by what one can't see and panicking, almost an unwarranted fear of the unknown. I liken it to the feeling of being scared of the dark that you have when you're a kid, and running fast because you think things are chasing after you, but they're not, there's nothing there or it's not what it seems (probably a small thing casting a big shadow!). The eight of swords is almost like a mentally crippling feeling, feeling like you can't do anything, that you're trapped and immobilized. I have seen the 5 of cups as depression, and I keep wondering about the 5 of cups in the druidcraft...the way the figure is standing near the water's edge, gazing out over the water. Makes me wonder if they're contemplating suicide, or at least feel low enough to have thoughts of death and wonder what it would be like.

The nine of swords has often meant that I'm blowing things way out of proportion and thinking too much...overanalysing and making myself anxious over nothing. Worrying when there's nothing to worry about because of insecurities and low self esteem. I could also see it as insomnia and having terrible nightmares.

I've seen the 4 of cups as mild depression and a feeling of malaise, more from a feeling of being dissatisfied with life, and bored moreso than depression really. Feeling a little down because your life is so dull and boring, yet you're also in a state where you're too apathetic and lazy to get yourself out of the funk that you're in.
 

Glass Owl

For some time the Queen of Cups kept coming up for me and I think that it was because I was depressed and not dealing with my emotions.
 

Aerin

Anxiety cards for me are: 10 Wands, 9 Swords, The Tower (when near crisis point). Sometimes 10 Swords too.

Aerin
 

nisaba

In most cases, anxiety is not a mental illness but a natural reaction to the highly artificial surroundings of a mechanised society. What *is* mental illness in the sense of being inappropriate, is any sense of calmness or jollity in an urban environment. If you can be in a setting that is deeply anti-human and still be happy, there's something wrong somewhere ...
 

Thirteen

nisaba said:
In most cases, anxiety is not a mental illness but a natural reaction to the highly artificial surroundings of a mechanised society....
I'm sorry, but that's just not true. There are people who suffer from anxiety while on quiet walks through the park or in gardens. As far back as you'd care to go in human history, you can find reports of people suffering, even in the most natural, safe, familiar and calming of environments, sudden, heart-thumping terrors and fears that they were going to die, or face some terrible thing. I won't say that their environment had nothing to do with it as I can't know that--but you can't know that it did. In a lot of cases, such anxieties get triggered by familiar even natural things, not artificial things.

In fact, the exact opposite can happen, with people in very artificial and unfamiliar environments growing very calm to handle the situation.

Now, you might be right in saying that anxiety is not be a "mental illness," but then we get down to what is a mental illness? Because almost all such illnesses relate to certain chemical imbalances or, if you like, inappropriate chemical stimulus to the brain that result in feelings or thoughts that make no sense given the circumstances. If depression is a mental illness--feeling sad even though circumstances don't warrant it--then why not inappropriate anxiety in a perfectly safe and familiar environment?
 

Dancing Bear

Some mental/emotional health issues can actually have anxiety as a part of it..
Post traumatic stress disorder to name one mental/emotional health issue that has anxiety as part of the condition., and at times nothing to do with external surrounds.. and other times external surrounds has everythign to do with it...a trigger can happen in the most unlikely place. whether natural or artificial.




I am going to have to absolutely agree with Grapefruitmoon in her findings with the tarot
and it is funny you should mention druidcraft.. I read with druidcraft..
So could also the deck or images have anything to with our interpretations as well..

I would also like to add the four or swords..for a little depression.. or just plain thinking too much.. depends on surrounding cards.

interesting thread..



Edited to say that some depression could be classed as mental issue.. especially when manic depression comes into it.. people who are continuously in and out of depression, and it can be quite deep..and linger for years..
I did a reading for one such person. I had known her for a few years by now.
The moon at the base of the wand and 9 of swords above it.. came up for her.. I had no idea she was feeling and thinking this way.. until i asked her .. as I didnt want to point the finger, not on something so delicate.. especially when dealing with mental health.. anything can be turned around as literal and negative in the worst sense, even when that is not our intentions . To ask; i asked if she is confused in many many ways about a lot of things and cannot stop thinking about it all in a major negative sense.. the answer was Yes!, for years..she was a manic depressant..even on meds.
that was my very first encounter with depression with the cards.
 

nisaba

Thirteen said:
Now, you might be right in saying that anxiety is not be a "mental illness," but then we get down to what is a mental illness? Because almost all such illnesses relate to certain chemical imbalances or, if you like, inappropriate chemical stimulus to the brain that result in feelings or thoughts that make no sense given the circumstances. If depression is a mental illness--feeling sad even though circumstances don't warrant it--then why not inappropriate anxiety in a perfectly safe and familiar environment?
You are quoting me out of context. What I was getting at, was that in a highly unnatural environment, anxiety is a normal, healthy response to unnatural conditions.

How long have we had cities? about 11,000 years. How long have we had technology? About 2,000 years. How long have we had basically unchanged physiological chemistry (moods)? about 900,000 years. A person who suffers anxiety or depression in hugely unnatural conditions is not necessarily disordered. In fact, people like me with my more-or-less permanent smile, are aberrations, and could qualify as mentally unbalanced, as we do not respond to the real world in a real way, with the panic that it deserves. (Of course, get me in a crowded shopping centre, and I start to be less unrealistic!)
 

Aerin

*puts hand up*

In my case I would say that anxiety was a response to a situation that was no longer tenable for me to function in without changing some of my dearly held values. Whether people classify as an illness or not (and the medical profession do) it resulted in physical symptoms. Which have now subsided. (Because I'm not there any more.)

But back to the cards...

4 of Swords for me was an advice card, 6 of swords came up as well. Mental distancing. Useful.

Aerin
 

hunter

Define "mental Illness". Most people use the term in relation to a person who is annoying them, unproductive, different, threatening, etc. We as a society often negatively label what we do not understand.

Even well educated, compassionate people who work in the mental health field struggle to define and label.

Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome is "a normal reaction to an abnormal situation". Many people with addictions, and labeled as mentally ill, have undiagnosed PTSD. Are we including PTSD in this?

I would only assign a certain card to a certain symptom. I think a general term of mental illness is too misunderstood and carries such unfair stigmatization, that it's unfair to be used in a reading about a student's parent. I think the parent deserves better than that.