Mental Health: Coming Out Of The Shadows

Just like a person with poor eyesight needs glasses and a diabetic needs insulin, some very ordinary people have a chemical imbalance and need medication.

Mental health.

We make an appointment every year with their G.P. to check out their physical health and reluctantly arrange for a dental check up but why don’t we also have a professional mental health check up?

Some people might laugh off the implication there is anything wrong with them. Others might nervously skim the rest of this post, fearing to admit they have problems.  This question is far from ridiculous, though. Have you taken a good look around lately? What do you see and hear?

The modern society is stressful because people are anxious about the economy and job security. They have problems sleeping; many self-medicate with alcohol, drugs and cigarettes to help ‘take the edge off’. More and more sick days are the result of depression and other mental health issues. However it never enters most people’s minds to seek professional help until they are in a crisis; there still is a stigma attached to mental illness.

Most of us who do seek help, gloss over our issues saying we go for counselling because simply as a self-help resource. The labels are so damning.”Post-traumatic stress disorder, restless leg syndrome, depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, paranoia, panic attacks”….  The labels are a terrible stigma. Often people become ashamed and it is no wonder that they do.

Others usually cannot understand these unseen illnesses. So they simply fall back on age-old admonishments,

“Pull your self up by the boot straps.

Just push yourself.

Don’t be lazy.

What’s wrong with you, anyway?

You seem fine to me!”

But often mental and emotional issues are a simple matter of serotonin levels. Problems with anxiety and/or depression are merely wake-up calls for people to seek counselling and open mental closets, setting shadows free.