Last week was Mental Illness Awareness week, and Friday, October 10, 2014 was World Mental Health Day. I often write about my experience as a mother of a child living with multiple mental illness diagnoses. But last week, I took to social media to talk about it even more, to raise more awareness, all with the hopes of eliminating stigma and increasing education on the topic.
True story. Recently, I was sharing our journey with someone I don’t know well. The story of parenting a child with mental illness. I was educating this person about mood disorders and ADHD and the difficulties of treating both, the challenge with school, and how hard it can be to manage the changing moods and the peripheral effects of them. At one point, this person said, “So, does he go to class with normal kids? I mean, I guess we’re all a little crazy, aren’t we?”
I’m going to assume the intention was good here. That this person was trying to make me feel like it isn’t that big of a deal and we all have our own problems. I don’t honestly believe it was malicious. BUT…it shows how much educating has yet to be done.
Imagine the changes that could happen if we openly discussed mental illness as much as we do cancer? People wouldn’t have to suffer in silence, the loved ones supporting people with mental illness wouldn’t have to feel shame in discussing it. MORE PEOPLE WOULD GET HELP. LESS PEOPLE WOULD CONSIDER SUICIDE.
With 1 in 4 Americans living with mental illness, IT IS TIME TO START TALKING about it.
Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S. (more common than homicide). IT IS TIME TO START TALKING about it.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death for ages 15 to 24 years and more than 90 percent of those who die by suicide had one or more mental disorders. IT IS TIME TO START TALKING ABOUT IT.
What is stopping you from talking about it?
#MIAW #WorldMentalHealthDay #StompStigma #NoShame
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This is a great post. Yes, yes, yes.