David White, MD
In the hit movie “The Sixth Sense,” 9-year-old Cole is gifted with the ability to “see dead people,” who do not know they are dead. As he deals with the terror these insights invoke, he is ostracized for his oddities. He ultimately discovers that this gift enables him to free these lost souls from their aimless wanderings. In my nearly 20 years of peering into hearts and souls of my patients, I have yet to meet one person who sees dead people. I’m not gonna lie,
I’m kinda glad about that.
I have, however, met many who do carry a similar burden and I have often shared this movie as analogous to their struggle. So many of the patients I meet who struggle with anxiety tend to be those folks who sense the world around them in ways that are unfamiliar to most of us. They sense the heaviness of a broken world that is filled with hate, anger, sadness, hurt, chaos, insecurity and confusion. It isn’t pessimism, but rather a perpetual sense of things not as they ought to be. They can walk into a room and sense hidden tension and strife. They can read what is in the eyes of those around them. They live in the reality of our frailties and mortality. Worry-wart, Hypochondriac, Downer, Negative — we have many names for them. Perhaps we should also consider Sensitive, Insightful, Discerning, Realist.
I’ve shared with those that can affirm this as their experience of life, that their ability to sense the world around them is both a burden and a gift. The burden is that the reality of life is always before the eyes of their sensitive hearts. They will never know the freedom found in the phrase, “ignorance is bliss.” The gift is that they retain an ever-present empathy and compassion. Love expressed with a disposition that says, “I am here with you. I understand. You’re ok.” So for those of us that live in the realm of blissful ignorance, we need you!
We need you to free us from our aimless wanderings!
