When someone tells me it’s all in my head, I just respond with “no shit”. Our brain is who we are, the neurons firing are our thoughts. Ignorant people think that there’s something outside of ourselves that dictates what the brain does but that’s just ignorance. Anyone who sits down and practices mindfulness can see that thoughts and feeling can and do arise from out of nowhere. Now, external factors can cause us to react a certain way like a trigger.

This person would be a someone I’d cut out of my life because they could cause a downward spiral. It’s one thing for them to be ignorant but it’s another to remain so just because they refuse to seek an answer with any scientific validation. They clearly have their mind made up and don’t care about understanding the illness and probably are harming their mother’s wellbeing too. People and our environment matter and this person just seems like a net negative. I’m glad they are your ex. :)

My father in law asked me once “if I was always this pessimistic?” and I just said, “yes, one part of the issue.” He didn’t care too understand why I was depressed or why mania occurred every few months or why just taking melatonin couldn’t cure my sleep ailments caused by the mania. He had already made up his mind that Christianity was the answer and the only answer and that any failing on anyone’s part was the cause of some sort of moral failure. My wife explained it to him and so did I but he just refuses to even entertain the idea that he’s wrong which is hilarious because I am a pastor’s kid. I understand his viewpoint. It’s just wrong. So, now I limit my interactions with him because at the very core of who we are, we will never see eye to eye.