I have been reading the breaking news this afternoon that Robin Williams was facing early stages of Parkinsons disease.This was yet another nuerological condition he had in addition to Bi Polar and chronic depression. His widow is imploring the public to get help, identify and treat mental illness. Did you know mental illness is all illnesses that affect the brain? Did you know 1 in 5 people suffer from some sort of mental illness in their lifetime with this statistic likely to rise. ADHD, Bi Polar, Parkinsons, Scizophenia,depression,are what we can readily identify, however did you know Hypothyroidism has a specific depression associated with it. Parkinsons and other nuero transmitter diseases have disease specific demetias.Cardiac disease can lead to vascular dementia,and the list goes on. We can no longer think about mental illness one demensionally. It like so many illnesses is edemic and needs to be seriously treated,ackowledged, identified and most of all the STIGMA of mental illness needs to GO! We must accept mental illnesses a chronic disease caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, otherwise , NO ONE will want to come forward, seek treatment, be honest about their illness and create safe support systems. Robin, your memory will forever be a blessing to your family, fans and all those whose lives you have touched, Your death should not be in vain, you have brought to the forefront an issue which we so often choose to ignore. we attach labels like crazy, mental, insane and other hurtful name. This in the long run discourages those who are ill to seek treatment. Their secret would be out, and people would make fun or even harass them. The truth, treatment helps those afflicted lead relatively stable lives as long as they follow through with docs and are compliant. Why do many not comply? Well here are some of the medications side effects: dizziness, nausea, ringing in the ears, loss of balance, vommitting, weight loss, weight gains, diabetes, metabolic syndrome,CAD HTN,memory loss, in ability to sleep, loss of concentration, ataxia, metalic taste to food, anorexia,and the list goes on.Not exactly the most pleasant thing to face but some how they need to know and be encouraged to stay compliant the demons they face are far worse. So before you call someone crazy, insane, or mental take some time to research mental illness.You may already love someone with mental illness and just not know.Educate, encourage, love, support those who suffer. It may not guarentee compliance, but the odds that they will be compliant go up exponentially. Also if you have someone you love and there are work difficulties employers are required to make accomadation another way to help the mentally ill cope and be productive whole persons, Excuse my tyraid, I lost someone very special in the past year to complications of Bi Polar l. They died not of the BP but of CAD, and Diabetes which lead to a heart attack. This loss has left me with the wish that the Stigma of mental health can be put to rest, and we can treat those with mental illness with the dignity, respect and treatment like any other chronic disease they deserve treatment not tormenting them further with hurtful words and slurs, they have enough demons to fight with out adding more.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 19:53:10 +0000
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