2008 Woodie Awards
Mental illness is a real disease and should be treated like one
Keith Brumley
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Opinion & Editorial
What's wrong with you? Get out of bed! You think you're better than everybody else? Get over it! It's just an excuse. There's nothing wrong with you! Stay away from him! She's crazy! That guy is weird! Quit feeling sorry for yourself! It's all in your mind.
This is what nearly every person suffering from mental illness has had to contend with, and it's well past time to start thinking of it in a different way.
According to the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, mental disorders account for more than 15 percent of illness in the United States alone.
This is all disease and illness. Mental disorders can be as disabling as cancer, stroke or a spine injury. It's second only to heart disease in the number of sufferers, and its sufferers total more than those with every form of cancer combined.
Still, many presume to pretend it doesn't exist. Despite efforts from the National Institute of Mental Health, the World Health Organization, the American Psychiatric Association and the National Alliance for Mental health, people suffering from mental illnesses are more prone to stigmatization than ever before.
Much of it has to do with fear. Many people carry preconceived - and mostly false - notions of what a mentally ill person is and how he/she behaves. Ironically, as our culture becomes more aware of mental health issues, the public has tended to equivocate mental illness with psychosis, and as we become more aware of how much violence pervades our society, those committing the violence are perceived as disturbed - and they should be.
Violence, however, and mental illness are not necessarily synonymous. Those suffering even from psychoses have little more possibility of committing an act of violence than your girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse. Acts of violence by those suffering from mental illness are less than the violence perpetrated on the mentally ill. So maybe those of us diagnosed as mentally ill aren't so ill after all.
This is what nearly every person suffering from mental illness has had to contend with, and it's well past time to start thinking of it in a different way.
According to the Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health, mental disorders account for more than 15 percent of illness in the United States alone.
This is all disease and illness. Mental disorders can be as disabling as cancer, stroke or a spine injury. It's second only to heart disease in the number of sufferers, and its sufferers total more than those with every form of cancer combined.
Still, many presume to pretend it doesn't exist. Despite efforts from the National Institute of Mental Health, the World Health Organization, the American Psychiatric Association and the National Alliance for Mental health, people suffering from mental illnesses are more prone to stigmatization than ever before.
Much of it has to do with fear. Many people carry preconceived - and mostly false - notions of what a mentally ill person is and how he/she behaves. Ironically, as our culture becomes more aware of mental health issues, the public has tended to equivocate mental illness with psychosis, and as we become more aware of how much violence pervades our society, those committing the violence are perceived as disturbed - and they should be.
Violence, however, and mental illness are not necessarily synonymous. Those suffering even from psychoses have little more possibility of committing an act of violence than your girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse. Acts of violence by those suffering from mental illness are less than the violence perpetrated on the mentally ill. So maybe those of us diagnosed as mentally ill aren't so ill after all.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Christine E.
posted 4/09/08 @ 9:11 PM CST
If you or anyone you know are suffering from symptoms of depression or any other mental illness- even if you've tried to brush it off as long-term stress of a chronic case of the blues- please contact Student Counseling. (Continued…)
Post a Comment