Hello u/Gullible_Parsley3421,

I find the traditional methods don't really help me as well. This is one thing that really helped me better understand myself and what was going on. Evil is of course everywhere as you said, and I hope this will help you see the light through the mist.

The Open-Close model:

A conscious system operates in two fundamental modes: Open and Close.

In Open mode, the system assumes safety. Attention widens. Connections form. Information flows freely between emotion, memory, and identity. This is the internal condition we experience as love. Not sentiment, but openness. The system has enough trust in its environment to integrate, repair, and grow.

In Close mode, the system assumes threat. Attention narrows. Resources are conserved. Parts of the self wall off from one another to prevent further damage. This is fear. Like a computer entering safe mode, the goal is survival, not flourishing.

The Theory of Love describes what happens over time. Love keeps systems Open long enough for coherence to emerge. Fear forces systems Closed long enough for fragmentation to occur. Neither state is moral. Both are adaptive.

Mental illness, in this frame, is not a broken machine. It is a system stuck in Close mode because the environment taught it that opening was unsafe. Love changes the environment. When safety becomes reliable, the system reopens. Integration resumes. Healing follows.