Mental Health.
People make an appointment every year with their G.P. to check out their physical health and reluctantly arrange for a dental check up but why don’t people have a professional mental health check up?
How IS Your Mental Health? Eh?
Reading this some people might laugh off the implication that there is anything wrong with them, others might nervously skim the rest of this post. This question is far from ridiculous,though. Have you taken a good look around lately? What do you see and hear?
The whole atmosphere of modern society is stressful because people are anxious about the economy and their job security. They have problems sleeping or self medicate with alcohol, drugs and cigarettes to help ‘take the edge off’. More and more sick days are the result of depression and other mental health issues. However it never enters most people’s minds to seek professional help until they are in a crisis or even must be committed. There still is s stigma attached to mental illness.
Most of us who do seek help, gloss over our issues saying we go for counselling because the labels are so damning.”Post traumatic stress disorder, restless leg syndrome, depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, paranoia, panic attacks…. the labels are a terrible stigma. Often people become ashamed and it is no wonder that they do.
Society usually cannot fathom these unseen illnesses and resorts to an age-old admonishment,
“Pull your self up by the boot straps.
Just push yourself.
Don’t be lazy. What’s wrong with you, anyway?
You seem fine to me!”
Well I want to yell from the roof tops that just like a person with WITH POOR EYESIGHT NEEDS G LASSES AND A DIABETIC NEEDS INSULIN SOME ORDINARY PEOPLE HAVE CHEMICAL IMBALANCES AND NEED PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. PERIOD.
It is that simple.
No shame.
No guilt.
A simple matter of serotonin levels.
mother of nine9 
You’re right. It’s a shame there is still a stigma on mental illness. There has been steady progress but still a long way to go. As for me personally, I can’t say I feel the need to see a mental health professional once a year to make sure I’m balanced, but I sure hope someone close to me would say something if they thought I needed help. Sometimes you can tell when you need help and other times you can’t.
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yes we often can’t tell
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It’s such a slippery slope. So much untreated and overtreated mental illness. I wish that there was more emphasis on the actual working through of problems, instead of medicating symptoms.
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my husband and I meet with a group of people who are having amazing breakthroughs partially because a normal looking couple understands, relates to and likes them.
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I firmly believe that this is a side-effect of psychology and psychiatry being relatively “younger” sciences. As time passes we will be able to better answer the “whys” and “hows” instead of just the “whats.” Once we can really do that, treatment will be better targeted and more effective, and psych will get the respect it deserves.
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I never thought of that- interesting insight
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The stigma sucks, and that’s why I don’t hide my own problems. I live with depression, anxiety, and, according to my therapist, obsessive thinking (is that even a thing, LOL?) My second oldest daughter lives with bulimia. The easiest way to freak somebody out or get them to change the subject back is to mention it in passing. Not in an “OMG, look how sad we are!” but in a sort of “It is what it is” kind of way. It’s uncomfortable and scary, but when we talk about it, we normalize it; it becomes like diabetes or Crohn’s or celiac, and then more people are going to get help and feel less alone.
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IN Ontario, Canada, There is a campaign for mental health called- I am someone you might know-. Ordinary people’s photo with there REAL NAME and job and what mental illness they have!
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Very good blog post. I absolutely appreciate this site. Continue the good work!
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