**WARNING! Long Read Ahead! But I do hope it is worth your time, so please do try to read it all.
Some of you may know from speaking with me or reading my blog that I suffer from non-clinical depression.
Recently it is not a huge deal for me, but in the past it has affected me pretty hard. I still have occasional bouts with it, but over-all I have been doing pretty well.
As someone who has come to a point in my life that I need to devote a substantial portion of my focus in maintaining my "Mental Health," I wanted to start a discussion.
I believe it is high-time that we, as a society, start talking about mental health. I feel it should be a normal subject. One that we can converse about as openly and judgement-free as when we talk about our diet or fitness goals.
In the 20th century many topics such as manias, phobias, retardation, depression, anxiety and the like were looked upon as blights, things to be embarrassed about. Sufferers and their loved ones were quick to stomp out any trace of these.
2 prime examples of this are:
- The infamous Twilight Zone episode with none other than Billy Shatner, where he is overcoming a manic episode while traveling by airplane, only to be overcome himself. In that episode we get a very real feel of the public opinion of the '60s on the subject of mental health and medication that some may need. This can be watched on Netflix.
- The treatment of Rosemary Kennedy. This was a fun-loving, bright girl that was born into a family in the limelight. She was born with mental deficiencies that left her a bit behind her aspiring siblings, and this led her father to hide her due to fears that her condition would hurt the political career of him and his sons. Her life was later destroyed by a nascent procedure directed to 'fix' cases like hers called Lobotomy. The account of what they did, how they did it, and its after-effects make a chilling tale. More info on that is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_Kennedy#Appearance_at_court
These examples serve to show that mental health, from mild depression or mania to extreme retardation or handicaps, have, within the past 100 years, been seen as a blight on the human populace, and need to be resolved swiftly and discreetly.
Even after great social strides, the end of the 20th century still showed a great degree of negativity to the subject. Psychiatrists and counselors were given the nickname "shrink," and "quack."
Now, don't get me wrong. I feel that here in 2015 we are in a very safe place. Depression is being spoken about, those with autism are being understood (I mean, just go read Carly's Voice! Amazing!), and overall the public is very open to the need for someone to get help with some mental battles, small or large.
Pixar is slated to release a movie that covers a lot of this, it looks like. It (from what I have gleaned from the trailers) is going to explore the idea of a young girl that is affected with deep sadness, a sadness that is kind of out of her control. The movie looks like it will attribute this to the small, feeling-people in her head. However, for many of us there are small or large chemical imbalances, or extenuating circumstances that drastically effect how our mind works, and we end up with a need to chemically correct it, or seek counseling or therapy.
I myself have never taken medication, but have had therapy and external helps. I would be lost without them! Today my amazing wife Nita serves as a caretaker to me whenever things do go awry for me upstairs.
Now I feel I should point out that I do not feel that we embrace these issues, and welcome them. Some would argue that, since these mental health issues are part of us, they are beautiful and we should celebrate our anxiety and be happy it is one of our traits. I do not agree with this. The same way I do not agree with the idea that we should embrace obesity as beautiful.
This post is to liken Mental Health with Physical Health. In today's society we see the need to better ourselves physically. We set goals, team up with people, we talk with positivity towards getting our body in better shape. I think it is high time we do the same for our mental health.
And some people have extreme physical disabilities that they receive aid for. Barring the most terrible of humans, people do not see someone in a wheelchair as someone shameful, degraded, broken. Granted, in the literal sense of the term they are 'broken,' but time has shown us that a great number of people in wheelchairs are fully-capable humans. I feel it is the same with anyone who has severe mental disabilities.
In this life, we may run into someone who has some love handles. We may also run into someone that gets slightly anxious on occasion.
We may run into someone who has a pretty tough time not eating too much sugar. Likewise we may run into someone who has kinda severe bouts with depression every month or so.
Then we may encounter someone who is a paraplegic. Comparatively we may also run into someone who has some serious inner demons or mental handicaps that will need some special care.
I think we, as a race of flesh bags on this rock that launches around a ball of gas in space, have come a long distance in caring for and understanding our neighbor. And for that we should celebrate. I do feel that there is always room for improvement, and on this I hold the opinion:
Let's start talking about mental health. Let's address the betterment of ourselves and our neighbors the same way we do physical health. One can go to a therapist, and another to a personal trainer. The more we can go to each other for help and support without feeling like we are being judged for being broken, the easier it will be for us all to overcome our difficulties, and to better ourselves. Maybe let's not call therapists shrinks, or call people basket cases, or looney. Maybe instead of saying "She suffers from mental issues" we say "She is working on her mental heath." I don't say that someone who works out or runs daily is "Suffering from physical issues." No, I understand that they are just working on making the physical part of their being a little better.
I know a lot of this is spelled out in our own individual charters or religions, but I felt it could use a bit more clarification as well as exposure.
In this post I have drawn a number of parallels between those working on Mental Health and those working on Physical Health. This is for comparison only. Please understand that I know that many, if not all people, are working on both mental and physical health. Some people may only need to trim their waistline while at the same time see a therapist for anxiety. Others may just be slowly working on not being so judgmental while needing to have a doctor's help to recover from obesity at the same time.
Mental health can encompass anything we are working on mentally, from being nicer to others to learning how to communicate while being autistic, the same way that physical health can encompass working on anything with our external bodies, from exfoliating your skin to going to physical therapy to recover from a spinal injury.
And as always, if anyone who would like to know more about the mind of one with depression, feel free to ask me about it as much as you want, for I have found that the more I can unearth the mysteries of my mind to myself and others, the easier it is for me to deal with episodes when they come, the same way dieters can rely on that friend of theirs when they slip up and hit up McDonalds.
Please leave comments or questions below, or on my facebook post about this, or email me privately at featon@outlook.com.
And please feel free to share this to anyone you would like to. I would love for this message to be spread to as many as want to be a part of it.
