Despite growing awareness and information, mental health disorders are still widely misunderstood.
Anyone Can Be Affected
Mental illness is largely inherited through genetics. Due to environmental circumstances or life events, anyone can develop a mental illness in which the chemistry of their brains becomes unbalanced or they lose sense of their ability to control emotions. Millions of people around the world of varying skin color, language spoken, and socioeconomic bracket live with mental illness. Many go undiagnosed and untreated, struggling to make it through each day with their limited knowledge on how to cope with their symptoms.
Mental Illness Is Not A Choice
A person struggling with depression cannot just choose to feel happy again. Someone with anxiety cannot just choose not to worry With therapy and treatment, people can develop a particular skill set and coping mechanisms to help manage their thoughts and emotions. That doesn’t mean that the thoughts, true to each specific mental illness, don’t still come up or can be overwhelming. It simply means that they are not as unnerving as they were before. Similarly, one doesn’t choose to become mentally ill. One chooses what they want to do with their lives and how they want to live with mental illness.
People With Mental Illness Are Not “Crazy”
Labeling the mentally ill as “crazy” or “insane” is harmful. There are some mental illnesses which reach an advanced stage, causing someone to be diagnosed as clinically insane. By definition, the word insane means “in a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior, or social interaction”. People can experience insanity but are not insane. Living with mental illness does not mean insanity- it means illness. Those who have mental illness are sick people in need of help to get more well.
We Need Better Mental Health Care
Currently, there is no cure for any mental illness. Thousands of medications, treatment methods, therapy types, and programs exist to lessen the intensity of symptoms while making life more manageable. Large portions of people who live with mental illness live without treatment or support. Mental health impacts someone’s ability to take care of themselves, have relationships with others, and contribute to overall productivity in society. Prioritizing mental health care should be a non-issue as it benefits those with mental illness and everyone else as well.
LEAD Recovery Centers provides dual diagnosis care to young adults and women who are need of extended care options after inpatient treatment. For more information on our programs, call us today at (800) 380-0012.
