fbpx
26 Jan 2022

Tag: identity

I am a mental health advocate, but still feel shame about my own struggles at times.

College was a pivotal point in my life regarding mental health advocacy and confronting my own struggles with mental illness. After joining a student organization on campus that aimed to raise awareness for mental health and open dialogue, I felt that I could genuinely sit with what I was feeling for the first time. Those four years were not always easy on my mental well-being: I struggled with anxiety, depression, body issues, and loss while balancing a social and educational life. While I had been an open advocate for mental health since my freshman year of college and grew up in a family where “mental health days” were valued, I still found myself keeping my struggles to myself. 

I noticed that if one of my friends were having a bad day or struggling, I would be the one to listen, offer resources, and remind them it’s ok to not be ok. But when it came to myself, I was a harsher critic. I didn’t feel the need to lean on anyone because I didn’t want to burden them. I created this narrative in my head that while being President of a mental health organization, I should “have it all together.” Yet, I found myself avoiding going to the school’s counseling center, and when I did, I hoped no one I knew would see me walk in. I didn’t openly discuss my anxiety until my junior year of college and found myself hiding my prescribed medication in drawers so a roommate would not see it. Simply, I was not practicing what I was preaching. Only a few friends knew I struggled with anxiety, and even then, they did not know my history with depression or body image struggles. Sometimes, I felt guilty about keeping my mental health to myself.

I would ask, “how can I be a mental health advocate if I am not being one for myself?” 

It’s a complicated situation. As a person, I do not stigmatize anyone’s mental health struggles. I am well-informed on how mental health impacts all of us. I know statistics and resources, and I genuinely believe that taking care of your mental well-being is crucial and essential. I understand and love so many people that live with mental illnesses, and they are not any less because of them. Yet, here I was, making my mental illness all I was. Here I was, equating strength with suffering in silence. 

I felt debilitated by my struggles at times. I thought it defined who I was, and I was ashamed. I didn’t want to be the girl who struggles with mental health. Because it is not always pretty. There are some heavy days, and I am still learning to navigate them. I am still learning to open up about my issues to the people in my life, and it is difficult. As a society, we often wonder, “why didn’t they tell us how they felt?” when someone loses their life to mental health or their struggles become apparent.

But I understand why people don’t want to talk about it. Some don’t know who they can turn to or who will understand. This was my own experience with grief. As a twenty-one-year-old who lost their brother, what friend can I talk to that will relate? I often felt like an outsider, especially returning to a college campus where everything was so alive, where people were celebrating, partying, loving, and living the “best four years” of their lives. So, I swallowed my grief. But I soon discovered that suffering was a lot harder to hide than my other mental health struggles. Because when you lose someone, it becomes a part of your identity. That heartache has changed me forever, and I am still learning how to acknowledge this new version of myself. 

Other people who struggle with mental health might not know how to put it in words or even want to discuss it because they live it 24/7. Why give more power to something that already has so much power over you? Sometimes talking about your pain makes you relive it. Other times, it allows you to release it. 

Yet, I am slowly learning to talk to friends, family, and loved ones about my mental wellness. I am learning to be gentle with myself and treat myself how I would love anyone who told me, “I am not doing ok.” I am not sure why it feels difficult to give myself that same grace I give to others, but it is. However, when I have written blogs about my struggles or opened up to people about my anxiety, I have always received love, kindness, and warmth. And it truly is those responses, those that say, “I might not get it, but I am here,” that is allowing me to heal in a way I have needed to for so long.

I am a mental health advocate, and I admire this part of my identity. I am proud of how I have grown to truly understand the mental health issues in our world. And I still have more work to do as an ally. But, I don’t want to just be an advocate for other people; I want to also be one for myself. Because I deserve the same love, I give out. I deserve the reminder: “it is ok not to be ok,” because I won’t always be ok and that is a reality I am learning to embrace. Even so, I still am worthy of good things, and I am still myself. My mental health is a part of me, but it is not all of me. 

An Effort To Explain “Psychosis”

When confronted with a disturbed loved one, especially one who has been in the hospital with a psychiatric diagnosis, many people hear the word “psychotic” used to describe their behavior or thought patterns. What exactly does this term mean?

 

First of all, it is imperative to understand that those suffering from “psychosis” are often lost in their reality and thus are unaware they are “out of touch with reality” no matter how bizarre their behavior or ideas appear to other observers. 

 

“Psychotic” is a clinical judgment.

 

It is not a diagnosis but rather a symptom describing the status of a disturbance of a person’s mind. The difficulty with the word ‘psychotic’ is that there is no absolute state, or judge, of what constitutes “reality.” 

 

The word all too often is used to assess the condition of an apparently “sick” individual. Here is the issue– since all people live and operate in their perception– how can a court or clinician discern what a healthy reality is or is not unless their safety is a factor? 

 

A person with delusions of being God might well be perceived as psychotic (as was my case) and firmly believe their ideas. On the other hand, the constituents of a radical politician may applaud them for their “honesty” despite the negative emotions they might induce. After all, if people are not ‘harmed,’ what do feelings matter regarding health and perception.

 

Reality is always relative and never absolute, so that every diagnostic judgment is ultimately subjective to the clinician using it.

 

In society, “reality” is a cultural construct defined by the majority of that culture. In my case, I accept that it took me six years to return from my delusion enough to be able to have the mental and social focus to return to college after a schizophrenic “break” at my first university. It took a growing awareness and insight in a private “program” and nine hospitalizations before I was ready to re-integrate into an educational setting without regression to a state of illness.

 

But it was the transformation of my self-perceptions that finally freed me from the internal mental structures upon which my religious beliefs. All this work on myself and the steps to these changes has convinced me that my path forward hinges on bringing this awareness to the families of those diagnosed with schizophrenia. I want to help them navigate the challenges not only presented by their loved ones but more especially to themselves so they can believe “Recovery is Always an Option.”

Breaking The Rules Saved A Man’s Life

Photo by Jayden Burdick on Pexels.com
Photo by Rakim Davis on Pexels.com
Photo by Zachary DeBottis on Pexels.com

 

I told him he “looked like shit” and asked if he had slept or eaten.

 

I was a street kid and not a college boy, and he knew it; it was and still is obvious.

 

 

Written by Craig Lewis, The Author of “Better Days — A Mental Health Recovery Workbook” and originally posted on the Medium Publication ‘Invisible Illness’on August 24th, 2019

Photo Taken in London, England, by Craig Lewis. 2017.

FEBRUARY STILL REFLECTING ON DECEMBER

February is here, January has gone, and we are only a month into 2021

 

Photo by Ono Kosuki on Pexels.com
Photo by Laura James on Pexels.com
Photo by Laura James on Pexels.com
Photo by Charlotte May on Pexels.com

Most of us have been affected one way or another by COVID19. Too many suffered, too many died. As of this writing, there are two vaccines and reasons for optimism that 2021 will be better. Yes, there will be some significant changes, but will any be good enough to excite our interests or make our lives better to put us in a positive frame of mind and put us on the long and winding road. 

No, neither of the Beatles roads, Abbey. Road or the Long and Winding Road. Not the yellow brick road from the Wizard Of Oz. How about another couple rounds of stimulus money, so more people can buy food and medicine. MEDICARE FOR ALL. It is for our ROAD TO SUCCESS. Yes, our road to success! 

Eight days and eight nights of Chanukah have now come and gone. Did Jewish People, get their gifts? Probably not, too much struggle in many places around the world. In many of the windows were pretty menorahs shining in the night. Many evenings, I smelled the latkes (potato pancakes) fried on the stove. In the ovens were turkeys not quite ready to be carved. While the kids were playing dreidels and singing CHANUKAH SONGS in three different languages, English, Hebrew, and Yiddish.

Is 2021 going to be good or bad? Success and failure are different for each of us, but we do strive for the former. Despite his valiant efforts, President Trump lost the November elections. Now, some individuals in this congress still want to impeach him, but it is not necessary. 

The successor, Joseph Biden, was recently inaugurated on January 20, 2021, as the 46th President of the United States, and shortly before, Senator Kamala Harris, from California, was sworn in and became our next Vice-President. Sen. Harris made history as the first Black  Asian Female Vice-President of the United States. Is this a good change or not? Only time will tell.

My preference is to stay positive and reflect. Although I do not want the snow, I did my best to accept it when it fell from the sky. That moment, I decided to gaze outside the open window and felt the snow as it glistened on my unprotected hand and sometimes reaching out to grab a few to make little snowmen for others to witness. Meanwhile, I heard a stereo playing CHRISTMAS CAROLS for anyone to sing, dance, or just and enjoy from another home. 

Let’s not worry. 

There were plenty of trees, all decorated with shiny ornaments in red and green, yellow and blue to make the night bright. While others were watching a variety of classic holiday movies like “A Christmas Carol” or “Home Alone” or “Christmas Story.” Also, in the air, I could smell turkeys roasting, hams glazing, biscuits frying, and an array of desserts baking, all emitting odors from the assortment of kitchens.

Partially awakening from my daydream of holidays past, I focused on February and issues of now. Minutes later again, I started thinking or dreaming about some of my holidays with my significant other, Maureen, who died on Friday, June 12, 2015. On December 11, we would have been married for 15 years. When I thought about her here and elsewhere, I only imagined how my life would have been different. Sweetie, I love you, I miss you, and I still wish you were beside me here.

Our journey continued…

SEE YOU IN THE NEWS BLOGS.

Editors Note: Mental Health Affairs does not endorse any political party. This blog entry is an example of how politics and uncertainty impact mental health and anxiety. Mental Health Affairs’ official stance is politics, as a subject, generally externalizes personal issues and distances people from finding solutions to their problems. We encourage practitioners and people to get the heart of their problems and discuss them without using politics as a crutch to defer real self-examination and reflection.

is Mental Illness a disability?

Photo by Cliff Booth on Pexels.com
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com
Photo by ShotPot on Pexels.com
Photo by Marcus Aurelius on Pexels.com
Photo by Judita Tamou0161iu016bnaitu0117 on Pexels.com
Photo by ThisIsEngineering on Pexels.com

So, I want to pose a question: is a mental health disorder a disability? I suspect the answer to this question hinges on how disability is contextualized.

There are several ways of going about thinking about disability. I want to focus on the purely academic conversation out there in higher education today. This framework casts disability and its study as a social construct. A mental illness, or a mental health disorder, wouldn’t be an impairment but a divergence or neurodivergence from the “norm” by a purely academic lens.

Many academics suggest these norms center around “ableism” or a belief within society, which privileges the existence of power differentials that suppress marginalized community members and their circumstances. Given this framework, there is no such thing as a mental illness, is there? Only the disorder, which these academics believe is rooted in the normative medical narrative dominating what the social influencers make out to be good mental health. This is where my problem with disability studies and the predominant academic history surrounding mental illness is located.

Underneath this prevailing academic version of mental illness is a silent minority in the University. These are the very sick, the chronic mentally ill, who know that their suffering extends beyond what social apparatuses define and fail to validate. These are the experiences of so many who understand their disorder for what it is, and still hate their symptoms because they are very real, very disabling. These folks are left without the support of the higher-ups in the discourse due to conflicting ideas of illness, disorder, and disability.

Given. The disabilities narrative is incredibly empowering in the same way a veneer of confidence serves someone who is genuinely self-critical and self-loathing. Sure, I get it. The disability studies notion of impairment as a social construct allows people to externalize their self-doubt, even feelings of difference and possible shame from having a potential life long stigmatizing illness in a culture that privileges ability and means.

This is genuinely marvelous for some folks who:

1) will benefit from engaging in externalization (a word of caution as externalization can often be a way of avoidance or avoiding an issue directly that is causing more harm than good,

2) live inside the walls of the academy. Outside the University the disabilities narrative is often nonexistent (people outside of academia don’t buy into the social construct theory due to the fact people have to live out their lives and with these impairments within their reality divorced of journal articles and spirited lectures in higher education.

So, this means people wheelchair-bound must deal with sidewalks without ramps and accessibility issues? Also not the case.

The simple truth is that resource-deprived folks will encounter even more issues related to access and getting their hands on adaptive software or hardware to allow their disability not to control their life or how they go about living. These are just physical disabilities or impairments. In the world of mental health, people in the public mental health system must deal with the realities of getting treatment within a plan of care that doesn’t see them as individuals. This stigma exists. Just because disability studies refute the stigma and make it visible to small cliques in their university departments continue to reject the harsh realities for people with mental illness outside of higher ed.

These are realities like stigma, discrimination, forced treatment, and all sorts of negative issues related to having a mental illness. These are issues impacted by social constructions. I’ll give the disabilities studies camp this much. However, social constructivism and its impact on our lives’ reality only explain how the public contextualizes mental illness. Other aspects of mental illness aren’t described by social constructivism. These aren’t small or unimportant issues either. These are real issues for many people who have a mental illness.

For example, according to disability studies, mental illness or serious mental health disorders are manifested by social apparatus conventions at work in the broader normative culture. If this is true, then must I live in a world that defies all traditions, and the world at large outside of the University, to feel okay and healthy? Must I live outside the realities of my life to feel like I am without a disorder? is it really a society that makes my condition an illness? Well, let me tell you, folks.

I live in Yonkers, New York, in the United States. You can look it up on a map. It’s there. It’s a real place. As accurate as geography and state lines get in a world where nationalism still functions and divides up the world.

The social security administration understands, thank god, that my mental illness is an impairment. The social security administration (SSA) and disability benefits department doesn’t care about social constructivism. Why? Because SSA is not bound up in the metaphysical world. All of us here in the real world need money to pay bills and medical care to pay for our mental illnesses.

Odd. If mental illness is just a social construct, why isn’t Social Security Administration out there doing social campaigns? Instead, they are dolling out the necessary money for the treatment of serious illnesses.

Thank god, because, without my (intramuscular injection), my illness would destroy everything I have ever built again. I would return to a state of persistent delusions and other symptoms that are so intense and difficult to tolerate. I would need immediate intervention (not from a disability studies university professor disputing my social constructions but a clinical therapist and expert in severe mental illness) Because when my voices return. When my mania returns, no professor or academic will help (I learned this first hand from my break while enrolled as a student). I will need specialized interventions, and I would likely be so disordered, ill, sick, whatever, that I wouldn’t survive outside of the hospital. With this said, thank god academics don’t run the state benefit or hospital system.

Furthermore, I am also grateful people like my therapist and other clinicians know social constructivism is only part of the picture. It is not an explanation for every aspect of divergence in culture, mental health, or otherwise. I am suggesting the disabilities studies contextualizing of mental illness, disorder, or problems is not only limited, but it’s also monolithic and very much dismissive of the realities out there in the world outside the gates of the University.

 

STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION ABUSED BY MEDIA

 

HEADLINE: ”DISHEVELED LADY WHO WAS HEARING VOICES HAS BEEN FOUND AND ARRESTED….” 

(more…)

The Fear of Self-Disclosure🗣

In most cases, like most of us in the social and professional world, I am communicating a message learned from lived experience, sometimes understood, from observation, other times from research, as well as experiential knowledge.

Regardless of the signal or role I am in or hat I am wearing in my job or professional work, or a friend I am speaking with, I am communicating an important message. In most cases, the message is received, and we get feedback. Sometimes people will like what we have to say, and other times, people will disagree.

How we signal, that is, send the message, depends on our skills as communicators. While everyone processes the same content differently, it is in our hands as communicators, regardless of the hats we wear, to communicate the message in a manner in which people will understand it. The person may disagree with the statement, but if we genuinely prioritize the act of communication over the importance of the reception of the message, we take one giant leap closer to getting over our own self-importance in our interpersonal landscapes. This includes our jobs, our social circles, and all things involving interacting with people.

In a world where diversity can sometimes be a scarcity, there is no reason to take further steps in limiting our ability to reach people. In my profession particularly, the helping field, and for all of us that simply enjoy time spent in others’ companies, there is an unspoken fear that the person we are speaking to won’t listen or isn’t listening. Even worse, we perhaps fear the listener, client, or friend will dislike us because of what we say.

However, I am suggesting that this fear is misplaced. IF you are fearful of people disliking you because of what you have to say, think again. In fact, there is no such thing as a misuse of self-disclosure or the act of revealing your history to other people. Instead, there is only the possibility of miscommunication. What I mean is that the fear of people knowing more about you, at least in my opinion, shouldn’t be the priority in the helping profession; instead, the fear of not signaling or sending the right message needs to be the concern.

Why? In a world of increasing tragedy and unfortunate circumstances, we should be out there, helping people learn from our lived experiences. Instead, helpers, friends, family, and everyone are more concerned with people’s judgments and biases that we lose sight of our mission to share the message. People don’t have to agree or like you, but sharing the news is more important if they are listening. With this said, prioritizing, the message’s clarity needs to be the primary concern for people in the helping profession. No question sharing the news and communicating it the right way needs to be what’s really doted upon by helpers if help is, in fact, the primary goal of what we are setting out to do.

Instead, our fear takes over, and we put these self-imposed limits on our communication that we feel people will respect more. I suggest that if people appreciate you, authenticity, honesty, and candidness are better qualities than just telling people what they want, or you think they should hear. In the helping profession, where authenticity is also scarcity and really needs to be a commodity, we are doing others a disservice that can learn from our lived experience.

What baffles me is that there are so many peers, people with lived experience, and those carrying a diagnosis uncomfortable with their lived experience. These are peers that limit and self-imposed boundaries around what they share about their history, depending on the hat they are wearing and how the person is communicating with might perhaps appreciate what they have to say.

I just want to say people appreciate honesty. People appreciate candidness, not artificiality or assumptions of their particular likes and dislikes. This is why my head spins when I discover, after speaking with other peers, friends, family, and all those involved with the helping process, a common fear of sharing particular aspects of their past. This is not to say that everything is relevant to go ahead and disclose or if the person listening will benefit. Still, the fear or primary concern of the person sharing should always be communicating their history accurately and effectively for the person listening to have the opportunity to benefit from it.

If you are a peer who has genuinely recovered, in recovery, or a person interested in having people benefit from your life’s lessons, then who cares if the person listening doesn’t like you or what you have to say. Not only did you put that person you shared your history within a better position to begin learning from your lived experience, but you also included them in your path to healing. The very act of having your peer, friend, or family member in your approach to recovery is healing. Including your peer in your path to healing isn’t just healing in and of itself. It is a simple step further in the way to sustainable recovery.

Indeed, recovery and our belief in experiencing positive change in our lives need to be authentic and real if we begin and stay healed. The omission of truth is a disservice to peers and those that run the risk of making the same mistakes. Share, feel free to disclose all aspects of your lived experience and mental health history. The moment we begin limiting the self-disclosed lessons, we genuinely put a roadblock on communication and the possibility of people learning from our lived experience.

STIGMA OR POSSIBLY DISCRIMINATION? 

pexels-photo-221164

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Why can’t we all get along?

Why can’t we treat each other fairly?

Why can’t we stop these killings?
Why can’t we share planet Earth?
Why, why, why, why?
Many good questions, plus many more answers. Sorry, I am not going to give you solutions here. It is not my place, I feel, to do so. However, instead, I will discuss STIGMA or possibly DISCRIMINATION?
Read on, yes read on, and enjoy.

 

Probably a good way to start this conversation is by telling each of their basic definitions. STIGMA is when someone sees one differently because of their mental illness. And now for DISCRIMINATION, it is when someone treats and or does something negative to another individual just because they have a mental illness. Sounds similar, but they are not the same. Trust me, they are similar. Please continue.

 

 

With growing numbers of violent acts and social injustices occurring now,  many of us label a criminal as “crazy”. Although a person might have a mental illness, to put that on an individual creates a bad image for everyone who lives with a mental illness each day. Yes, that is STIGMA. In reality, someone that deals with their mental issues is more likely to be a victim, then be an aggressor. By calling any person “crazy” can and does spread a stereotypical environment that creates STIGMA between the Criminal Justice System and the Mental Health System.

 

 

DISCRIMINATION comes in a variety of fashions. Whether it be someone getting selected by a college or university, or choosing the best person for employment, there is DISCRIMINATION. Look folks this still prevails all over our society. One might think that mental health care with its myriad of services and medications are not immune. Pun intended. See what I think leads many offenders that deal with some sort of mental illness to a life of stealing and killing is closer to the reason why many individuals are either underemployed or unemployed. Once again, it is our good friend DISCRIMINATION. 

 

 

Of course, this is not really a friend of mine at all. Up until lately, one might think DISCRIMINATION did not occur as often. But it did happen. Even once is too much. Now we see why it’s not a friend of mine. Both terms, STIGMA, and DISCRIMINATION need to be eradicated from our cultures, once and for always! It’s a long process, but we need to accomplish this so we can continue our trip towards Mental Health and Wellness. Every journey begins with one step. Like what Neil Armstrong stated as he stepped on the Moon surface fifty-one years ago, ” That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Of course, what was true on the Moon (and on Earth) back then, is true on the Earth today. Probably, still true on the Moon, too.

 

 

What do you say, my fellow earthlings? Is it worth our time and effort? I will attempt to do my part. What about EVERYONE else? Remember, I’m goingto find out. STIGMA and DISCRIMINATION need to be removed from our thinking once and for all! Remember, one person makes a difference, two persons make a couple of differences, and so on and so on. In my next article about STIGMA and DISCRIMINATION, I will attempt to explain how diverse media affects the two concepts. Till then, stay safe, stay well. See you in the J. PETERS blog.

 

Editor note: This is the first entry of a series article on discrimination by Howard Diamond.

 

Language and Stigma: The Objectification of Mental Illness

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com
Photo by Edward Jenner on Pexels.com
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com
Photo by Retha Ferguson on Pexels.com
Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com
Photo by Gustavo Fring on Pexels.com
Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com
Photo by Anton Uniqueton on Pexels.com
Photo by Mu00eddia on Pexels.com
Photo by Anton Uniqueton on Pexels.com

Despite all the talk and “chatter” on the internet to put mental health issues at the forefront of social reform and make the crisis more visible, reformers continue to fail. Let me be frank, “normal” folks are unaware of what a mental health diagnosis means for people. 

 

The unwarranted fear, paranoia, discrimination, and untoward hostile attitudes held against people carrying a mental health diagnosis. 

Stigma exists and is very alive today. The original aim of this conversation was to arm allies with the information to disarm stigma in the mental health system. 

As the writing unfolded, this feat proved more difficult and less convincing as I re-read my article. The insidious and covert nature of stigma not only rendered my talk here moot. Utterly beguiling when conceptualizing how to unearth the issue from from the mental health system. I hope to at least supply readers with an accurate breadth of knowledge on how stigma manifests in society and what to do to disable its polarizing and misleading insidious powers to conceal violent “isms” and make them so challenging to identify and eradicate. 

“He’s crazy, she’s bipolar, he’s manic.”

 

Language; Wording

Creating a Culture rife with Healthy Stances towards Mental Health 

We’ve heard these famous sayings–fueling misunderstanding in our lives. For the most part, we listen to them do not interject or intercede when these violent misuses of verbs and abhorrent adjectives make people the object of ignorance. But is ignorance a license to ever be hateful? No. is ignorance even an explanation for this misuse of language? I would hazard to say ignorance is not an explanation and not the reason language continues to be misused when it comes to talking about mental health and people we objectify with a so-called mental health disorder.

Misinformation continues to objectify people with a mental health diagnosis. What do I mean by objectifying? In Edward Said’s words– contesting the notion of nation-state and identity politics. I am appropriating Said’s application of how language works and applying it to the mental health community crisis and those who have faced discrimination because of their “disorder.”

How people identify and, in turn, identify with “others” is a dangerous walk on the slippery slope to objectification. ‘Othering’ serves to not only create an object of hatred but also of people’s discrimination. 

“Othering” divides us. 

‘Othering’ people with a diagnosis from those who do not carry one is a slippery slope to objectification. Sure, some of us benefit from labeling and having a diagnosis. People can use this information in small healthy doses to read up on their issues and learn more about how many others struggle. 

But othering has a negative and insidious side too. Othering not only serves to characterize people with a mental health diagnosis as different, but it can AND is a mechanism to divide us up amongst ourselves as peers or people in the mental health community.

I hear it all the time. We even use language to describe our shortcomings as if we need or even should supply our fellow peers with a humorous anecdote to explain away normal behavior:

 e.g., “I must have been crazy! What was I thinking?”

There are several strategies to change how we use language to disarm stigma at the same language level. One of the simplest methods is inserting the verb “to be” when talking about a diagnosis. As in: “I am a person with a bipolar diagnosis.” There are many ways to rethink the uses of language.

Nobody’s mental health is perfect. I don’t even know what perfect means when it comes to health or wellness. Remember, even the “healthiest” people have strengths and weaknesses. Even which practices are the best, or the healthiest is always up for contestation. Using the most vital methods in our lives and within the culture, we create at every community level. 

Why, then, is society so adamant and vigilant to discriminate against people carrying a so-called (un)-and/or–disclosed mental health diagnosis? 

I am suggesting invisibility and transformation permit radical new methods of objectification. Unquestionably, these lenses permit only one way of seeing or conceptualizing illness. The impact of the ‘devices’ limit people’s potential with a diagnosis and restrict them to a subordinate role in society in broad strokes. 

Objectification has been mobilized to create and propagate lies and other “isms” for far too long and must be stopped at all costs if we are even to disarm stigma in its tracks.

Understanding the Role of Support when Living with a Chronic and Persistent Mental Health Disorder

Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com
Photo by Josh Hild on Pexels.com

As I continue to mature and age along with my schizophrenia diagnosis, I think about how the passage of time impacts prognosis-and-simultaneously on the successful symptom management of a chronic patient. 

On a personal level, I cannot help but wonder how I got ‘here’. So, how did I get here? I was utterly disordered and unable to care for myself ten years ago… 

A big player in my recovery was getting on the right medication. Another, receiving quality psychotherapy. These, combined with my strength, will power, and most importantly, support from my close family, friends, and peers.

To this day, I believe I would not have made it this far so quickly without these critical pieces to my recovery. I have been so privileged. Without the help of my parents, family, and friends, my clinical picture would look radically different today. If these natural supports had never been available in my life, who knows where I might have landed?

Without these critical lasting supports, my mother, father, and prolonged standing friends before my illness are the building blocks of my recovery. My parent’s ongoing belief in my willingness and capacity for recovery, grit, and ability to carry on is acceptance of healing in its most radical form. 

I truly believe my success in the face of a mental health disorder in support and accessibility of friends and family. Right down to the generosity of our supporters with their time and energy. The very presence and helping hands are genuinely the fulcra that have launched me higher into the upper limits of healing. 

Indeed, higher than if I was doing this on my own and independently. The mental health systems emphasizes the importance of living a full and independent life when carrying a mental health disorder. Even when that disorder is chronic and longstanding…

However, the missing element to theories around lasting independence and goal-directed philosophies ignore how to incorporate active support in our lives. My parents have traveled with me across the globe for my mental health needs. They have also conversely cleaned my bedding when I was so disordered I soiled the sheets due to catatonia and muscle stiffness without my parent’s ongoing support. 

My newfound independence would sit on a swamp of uncertainty, trepidation, and fear of failure. Doing it all, and being so vulnerable. 

The risk of relapse when we are not in the company of those who can intervene is HUGE. When we cannot see ourselves and how disordered our realities can become, isolation can be a catalyst for self- destruction.

When managing my schizophrenia symptoms improved years ago, and I was able to travel again, my parents never shamed me over the limitations I faced due to akathisia. 

So, when it came to acclimating to certain medications, I was either too tired or too restless to sit down for extended periods in the early days. When my family and I traveled to Europe a year after my initial break-in in Italy, I could only savor pasta and pizza in short microdoses before I would have to get up and walk around. 

At least I was out there, though, trying to make it all work. I was getting encouragement from both parents and friends that did not understand my restrictions as permanent, self-imposed, or limiting.

With few exceptions, my supports have only cheered me in my recovery further. Sure, there are times when I mess up. 

This ‘messing up’ may have been rooted in poor insight into my behavior or lousy decision making. Despite all this, my collateral supports continued to guide me along.

My parent’s stern recommendations altered my life course without causing more harm than good. Listen, this can be a tricky thing without guideposts and social markers out there informing our decisions and providing us with extra additional insight when our internal barometers are naturally off-kilter.

A person with a severe mental health diagnosis having a support system is critical to producing a favorable prognosis. I cannot stress this enough, that support systems are crucial when you have a longstanding mental health condition. The reasons are both clear as day and subtle. 

Stated, when there are people, friends, family, or relatives available in a person’s life, the synergy of their influence and very presence is a protective factor.

Protective factors are positive contributors to a person’s safety. These contributors are crucial for people with a disorder when the “chips are down,” or life takes another unfortunate turn. When social security payments are late, income is short, or even if the bus runs late, and it’s challenging to get to work on time. 

Whatever the stressor, life’s negative turns can be due to the impact of mental health symptoms or just tragic extraneous circumstances. Either way, when support is available, these tragic turns can be reduced or avoided altogether.

As the chronicity or level of intrusion of the mental health symptom or disease process increases, so is the importance of having a robust and secure support system. Natural/organic contacts (i.e., friends and family) are the most vital if they are utilized and accessed by the person carrying a diagnosis savvily. 

Let me put all this into more concrete, real-life terms. So, think of a person with an acute or short-lived active mental health symptom. Since the period’s acute symptoms are active is less than a chronic disorder, the likelihood of chaos or unplanned circumstances is also less with conditions that espouse short-lived symptoms.

However, when a person has a chronic disorder, e.g., schizophrenia or most bipolar/affective spectrum disorders. The expanse of time is so much longer, so things are bound to go unplanned, wrong, or just mismanaged in terms of the condition and its impact on people’s lives over time. 

Again, to be more specific, if a person with schizophrenia is diagnosed at age 21, by his or her mid-thirties, so much time has elapsed that the person with a chronic disorder becomes more vulnerable just by having the condition longer.

Now, suppose a person has a chronic disorder and continues to flare up every so often throughout a lifetime. In that case, the sheer likelihood these episodic symptoms interfere negatively in the person’s life must also be higher or more significant. 

Fractions, numbers, and reductive logic make simple inferences of a person’s ability more concrete. There is another caveat to all this.

No disorder is the same.

Sure, symptoms carry certain features that can be identified, grouped, and marked, but their impact on the lives of people with a disorder is usually different.

Depending on the person’s resilience, life circumstances, amount of protective factors in place, and self-awareness (the list goes on and on with insight, judgment), and other cognition areas, which complicate how a person can best measure support systems in real terms. Support is a challenging aspect of treatment to measure given the impact of symptoms. People’s behavior is so radically different given the support system’s nature and its function in recovery. Ultimately, access and understanding how to utilize support go far when it comes to health.

When we think about healing and long term wellness in the span of a lifetime of chronic symptoms, get some support to experience lasting progress into the future.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
Photo by Craig Adderley on Pexels.com
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

 

Photo by Evelyn Chong on Pexels.com
Photo by Cu00e1tia Matos on Pexels.com
Photo by Guilherme Rossi on Pexels.com

 

 

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com
Photo by Stas Knop on Pexels.com

 

 

Mental Health Affairs 2022

%d bloggers like this: