After losing my grandmother, who had struggled with alzheimers for years, this past weekend Ive been doing a lot of thinking about things I could have done differently. How I could have made her struggle easier and how we can make the lives of people who struggle with mental illness easier together. It struck me how hard it was to talk about her illness, and how hard we as a society make it to talk about mental illness in general. When I think about how ashamed she was about forgetting things, something she obviously had no control over, it feels like theres a rock in the pit of my stomach. With Robin Williams suicide yesterday Ive read lots of articles comparing the way we deal with mental illness with the way we deal with cancer as a society. As a cancer survivor I found this comparison interesting. As someone who has struggled with depression for the past few years of my life, its something I havent been able to stop thinking about. Its an especially telling sign of the stigma towards mental illness that I agonized for the last hour about whether or not to type that last sentence, but I have now and I refuse to delete it. When looked at from a purely emotional impact standpoint there are plenty of similarities between mental illness and cancer. Both separate the sufferer from society in ways that are insidiously difficult to combat, both can make the sufferer feel as though they have completely lost control of their own life, and both take far too many lives every day. Yet the way we treat the two illnesses societally couldnt be more different. Over the past few decades suicide rates have skyrocketed all over the world, and yet we still stigmatize mental illness to the point where, according to the CDC, only 25 percent of people who suffer from mental illness feels that society cares about their wellbeing. Compared to the 57 percent of people who dont suffer from mental illness who feel that society shows compassion to the ill that statistic is something we should all be ashamed of. With all of this in mind Ive decided to urge everyone who might listen to try to think of mental illness the way you think about cancer. Like cancer, mental illness can be overcome, but only if its recognized and given the proper treatment. So please, take the time soon to read about mental illness. Educate yourself on the signs and symptoms as much as you can. Learn about treatments for different diseases and the benefits and risks that go along with them. That way, if someone in your life is suffering from a mental illness, whatever it might be, you can be educated enough to help them if they ask you to. Or if you find yourself suffering from mental illness yourself youll know enough to get the help and treatment thats right for you. Ive been lucky enough to have friends and family that support me through the lowest valleys of my depression, and with enough education and compassion you can offer that support to someone in your life or find that support for yourself. Id like to thank all of you who took the time to read this incredibly long post and thank you for taking the time to make the silent epidemic of our time a little less silent. Another thank you has to go to my family and friends, whove helped me through so much, and my grandma, who I know gave me the strength to write this.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 22:43:39 +0000
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