We have built a society that seems to have turned stability into the ideal of human existence. Regularity, self-control, productivity, emotional balance and longevity. Everything that deviates from this model tends to be interpreted as an anomaly that needs to be corrected. Yet not everyone experiences the world in the same way. Some people live with extraordinary emotional intensity, go through periods of immense creativity and others of profound suffering. Their relationship with reality may be less predictable, but that does not necessarily make their lives less valuable. Normality may be a useful condition for organising society, but it should never become the measure by which we judge the worth of human beings.

Nor should we romanticise suffering or confuse illness with talent. Creativity does not require destruction, and intensity does not guarantee a fulfilling life. But preserving health should not mean eliminating everything that makes a person different. Perhaps the real challenge is to find a way of living that allows us to preserve our sensitivity, imagination and freedom without becoming hostage to the very things that can destroy them. We do not need to manufacture uniform human beings. We need to accept that there are many ways of experiencing life, and that none of them should have to ask permission to claim their own value.