Let’s Open Our Eyes
Mental health is one of the number one most forgotten and unexpressed diseases impacting our society today. Why is this? It can be a scary topic, many people don’t feel that they can express their feelings wholeheartedly. Others are just blind to it, meaning they do not know how to read if someone is depressed, happy, sad, emotional. Mental health does not have to just be how someone is feeling one specific day, someone’s mental health can be affected over a prolonged period of time, and it can include ones emotional, psychological, and social state (Mental Health).
When a person’s mental health goes unrecognized it can make them feel alone in this world filled with billions of people. A person’s mental state can affect their whole life, and the people in it (Sartorius). There is a stigma attached to one's mental health, not only that but mental illness. It impacts the one who has it, as well as their family and friends (Sartorius). Although it does not stop there it impacts anyone in contact with them, including doctors, nurses, and their counselors (Sartorius). Mental illnesses affect twenty-six percent of homeless adults, twenty percent of state prisoners, and even seventy percent of young juveniles (NAMI).
Everybody has their own state of mental health from children to elders. Everyone has the chance of being affected by a mental illness, they are not just limited to college students (Burwell). A large sum of our population is affected by mental illnesses (Holthaus). Mental illnesses affect 19% of the adult population, 46% of teenagers and 13% of children each year” (Holthaus). You may not know someone is struggling from a mental illness by just glancing over at them. Just like George Eliot said, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. You yourself may never know what someone is going through no matter how often you talk to them. Mental illness strugglers could include your best friend, your brother, a neighbor, or even your doctor (Holthaus). “Half of all chronic mental illness begins by age 14; three-quarters by age 24” (NAMI). Despite effective treatment, there are long delays—sometimes decades—between the first appearance of symptoms and when people get help” (NAMI). Since mental illness is such a broad range of different diseases it can be hard to know when someone is suffering from a mental illness (NAMI). We as a society need to open our eyes to the generic symptoms a person may be having. One may be suffering from a mental illness if they are in “constant fear, feeling extensively sad, having strong feelings of irritability, avoiding social activities, even abusing substances of alcohol or drugs” (NAMI). These are not the only symptoms a person can be experiencing when having a mental health condition. They could also be experiencing suicidal thoughts, change in eating habits, sleepless nights, and the inability to carry out daily chores (NAMI).
The number one problem with mental illness being swept under the rug is that it commonly goes untreated (Holthaus). “Since the year 2000 suicide rates of both men and women have continued to rise” the cause being untreated mental illnesses (Burwell). The high percentage of those affected by mental illness continues to grow “as only half of those affected undergo treatment” (Holthaus). Not only have suicide rates been increasing suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States (NAMI). To make matters worse “ninety percent of children who die from suicide are suffering from a mental health condition” (NAMI). There is help out there for those having suicidal thoughts. The National Suicide Prevention LifeLine was created to help those having suicidal thoughts, they are able to be there as a support to anyone (NAMI). “African Americans and Hispanic Americans each use mental health services at about one-half the rate of Caucasian Americans and Asian Americans at about one-third the rate” (NAMI). “Mental health awareness month is established to recognize each and every mental health state” (NAMI). “Mood disorders, including major depression, dysthymic disorder, and bipolar disorder, are the third most common cause of hospitalization in the U.S. for both youth and adults aged 18–44” (NAMI). As people’s mental illnesses go untreated it can affect the life around them, including their career performance, suicidal risk, and even promotional chances (Holthaus).
People need to become aware that there is help out there for mental health conditions. Even if you are not the one affecting and know someone who is but might be too afraid to reach out you should step up and be the one to reach out for them (NAMI). If someone is in need of help they can reach out to the NAMI HelpLine they can help to lead you to someone who can help treat you or a loved one (NAMI). The NAMI HelpLine can help you with treatment options, educational programs, even job opportunities (NAMI). As well as the National Suicide Prevention LifeLine which was mentioned above there are other hotlines which one can reach out for help as well. The Crisis Text Line is available for those who would like to text with a professional crisis counselor (NAMI). There is also the National Domestic Violence Hotline this hotline is available twenty-four seven they offer specialists (NAMI). Those who have experienced sexual assault could be having the burden of a mental health condition, the National Sexual Assault Hotline is there to help them.
Why are people not realizing how big of a deal mental illnesses are? Why are they brushing them off like they are not a big deal? A statistical amount of people do not even know what a mental illness consists of. “ A mental illness is a physical illness of the brain that causes disturbances in thinking, behavior, energy or emotion that make it difficult to cope with the ordinary demands of life” (Holthaus). “It involves a living human organism or, more precisely, the condition of an individual human mind” (PsycNET). There is a broad range of mental illness causes, a mental illness can be caused by trauma, brain structure, genetics, even a medical condition (Holthaus). If people were more educated on what mental illness is, they would be more aware of when someone is being affected by one.
“When speaking of one’s mental health it is crucial to separate their attributes from actions” (PsycNET). One’s mental health is able to develop and change over periods of time (PsycNET). Each day can be different for one suffering from poor mental health (PsycNET). To determine a person’s mental health it does not come down to “one of many human values, and it should not be regarded as the ultimate good in itself” (PsycNET). “No completely acceptable, all-inclusive concept exists for physical health or physical illness, and, likewise, none exists for mental health or mental illness” (PsycNET). “The national program for mental health is not limited to one single definition, and therefore never will be” (PsycNET).
Each year in the month of May mental illnesses become significant (NAMI). May is mental health awareness month where people recognize those who suffer from different states of mental health (NAMI). Mental health awareness month is used to educate others on the mental diseases people undergo each and every day (NAMI). Although attention is brought to those who undergo mental diseases one month out of an entire year what happens after May has come and gone. That one out of fifth American is still suffering from the mental illness they were suffering from at the start of May, right (NAMI).
Mental illness is not just one disease, it is a large number of diseases. Mental illness diseases include schizophrenia which one percent of United States adults live with (NAMI). Bipolar disorder is another mental illness which two point six percent of United States adults live with (NAMI). Anxiety disorders which millions of people undergo daily are also included as a type of mental illness (NAMI).