October 10th was World Mental Health Day. I spent the day self caring for the most part. I got to talk to my future parnter Latka. I'll tell you all about that later. I watched some Netflix with my mom. I generally took it easy becuase honestly I didn't have the spoons to do what I had planned to do that day.
Mental illness is extremely common. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 4 people, world wide, have been diagnosed with mental illness. In America I know that number would be higher if we had universal healthcare. If you can't afford the doctor here you don't get to go get the help you need. You go undiagnosed and there for go uncounted. I would imagine it would be the same in other countries with out universal healthcare or lack of mental health resources in rural areas.
Mental health illiness occurs on a spectrum. My ADHD is really bad without my medication. I am forgetful, I can't foucus for more than 5 or so minutes, my brain moves so fast I can't keep up with it, I go off on tangent after tangent when trying to explain something simple, etc. For others it might look like needing a distraction free environment to get work done. They might not know they have ADHD becuase they have developed coping skills over the years to manage it. People at the lower end of the spectrum ( imagine it like a pain scale where 1 is I notice very slight discomfort but it's barely noticeable so I'm not going to do anything about it. Compared to an 8 where it really freaking hurts and is impeding you from doing anything) don't really know something is wrong so they never go seek treatment either. They go uncounted as well.
There are the lesser known mental illness, meaning that becuase people really don't know the symptoms they go undiagnosed. I didn't know eating disorders fell under mental health. Very spefic phobias fall under anxiety disorder.
Cyclothymia, Dysthymia, and Hypomania are lesser known mood disorders. Mood disorders include depression and bipolar disorder. Things that effect your mood. Delusional disorder and Shared psychotic disorder are psychotic disorders (a disorder that cause abnormal thinking and perceptions. It does not mean a person is out of touch with reality necessarily.). Impulse control and addiction disorders; compulsive actions or a uncontrollable dependantcy on something. Personality disorders, these are hard to explain so just click the link to read about it. Stress response syndromes is another one that is hard to explain. I could not find a website I trust that have a simple overview of it however there are tons of scholarly publications on it. So if you have the time and want to decipher medical jargon Google it. I do know that Acute Stress Disorder falls under this. Dissociative disorders are also hard to explain. According to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), also the site I just linked you to, says that this disorder cause an "involuntary escape from reality characterized by a disconnection between thoughts, identity, consciousness and memory." Somatic symptom disorders as I understand it is usually a negative physical manifestation of mental illness, stress, or trauma. I also have this becuase when my depression and suicidal ideation are at their worst, I develope an auto immune disease. The auto immune disease never has a physical cuase. They can't seem to cure it with any medicine used to treat any auto immune diseases. I only get better when I start to feel better mentally. Then it magically goes away. Some Tic disorders also fall under mental illness. The most notable is Tourette's syndrome.
These illnesses are just as serious as physical chronic illiness. Consider ashma, arthritis, or nerve pain. You can be born with it, some event can cause it, or it can develope over time. Once you have it, it never goes away. You can manage it. You can go years without any symptoms or side effects of the illiness. You might not need medication to manage it, or you might need to take medicine everyday. You can start on medication then no longer need it to manage said illiness, or you might constantly need to increases dosages or even try new medicine to manage it. When you go for your yearly check up your doctor will always ask you about it. You might need to see a medical professional often, or once a year. Out of no where the illiness can come back with a vengeance for no apparent reason. Some days are better than others. Weather changes might make the illiness better or worse. If you have more than one chronic illiness they might compound on top of each other or both work together against you. The only difference is people tend to understand a physical chronic illiness, even if they can't see it like nerve pain or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. People can't see it but they sympathize and empathize with people who have it. Nobody tells them to just get over it, accuse them of faking it, say it's a cry for attention, chastise them for needing medication everyday, gets mad when they cancel plans due to their illiness, etc. So why do we do that to people with chronic illiness that effects a person's mental health? If you have to put it in terms of of physical illiness to make it easier to understand, fine. A person's brain, a very important organ that we really don't understand how it works, is sick. That's the truth. The brain is not functioning in a nero-typical way, thus the illiness.
on top of all these mental illiness, that are just as serious and valid as chronic physical illiness, there are a variety of mental disabilities. Automatically everyone thinks autism. Yes, that is one. It deserves understanding and people with it deserve accommodations just like anyone with a physical disability. Did you know that there are others? There is so much more. I have one of countless processing disabilities. Mine centers around language. Learning languages through writing and reading is extremely hard for me. In English, my first language, writing my thoughts out in an organized comprehensive manner is hard. That is part the disability and part ADHD. Though if I can talk out my ideas with someone, they can help me find the words to communicate what I'm thinking. Then they help me organize my thoughts in a liner manner. You all wouldn't know it, because I don't use my coping mechanism to write this blog, but I'm actually a pretty thoughtful, thought provoking writer. I might upload one of my essays I've written for class later so you all can jugde me. It also effects my reading, but not my comprehension. I read extremely slow, I'm dyslexic, and I often have to re-read sentences becuase my brain doesn't process all the words and put them toghther to form the bigger picture on the first try. You think that would mean it would be hard for me to understand what I'm reading. If you just give me more time to work through it and talk to myself about it, I'm actually very good. When tested I scored in the 95th percentile in the world for reading comprehension. Meaning only 5% of people all over the world who've taken the test scored higher than me. I also have a hand eye coordination disability. There is some kind of disconnect between what my brain tells my hands to do and what they actually do. This affects my ability to catch, hit a ball, throw, write, type, and play an instrument like piano. I have been in physical therapy for 14 years. I can basically catch, throw, hit a ball, type, and learn to play piano as well as anyone else my age. My handwriting, on the other hand, looks like that of a seven year old unless I write extremely slow. Those are my two but you can read about others here and here
I don't know of any country that takes mental health as seriously as physical or oral health. You go see your primary care physician yearly (or at least you're suppose to). You do see the dentist every 6 months (again you're suppose to). You might even go to the eye doctor once a year. When was the last time you saw a psychiatrist or psychologist (the first one can prescribe drugs the second one you just talk to)? You should go talk to them. Tell them you've never seen a mental health professional or if you have the last time you saw one and what for. Tell them you just want a mental heath check up. They will probably be shocked becuase no one does this. They will ask you questions, might give you a series of test, or might have you take a survey. After talking to toy they might revel you have an undiagnosed mental health condition or they will tell you you're mentally healthy. You can ask them what to do to stay mentally healthy. I know my insurance required media have a referral from my primary care physician. All American insurances cover mental health treatment. Therapy is a great out let for stress and frustration caused by daily life. It can teach you better ways to cope with stress and how to be better in any type of relationship. So go! Stay as healthy as you can.
#WorldMentalHealthDay #WMHD
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