×

We must talk — and talk — about mental health

“We have learned that trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body. This imprint has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present. Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think.” — from “The Body Keeps the Score,” by Bessel van der Kolk

For the most part (though we still have much to improve upon), we as a society have learned how to behave around persons with disabilities and those inflicted with disease.

If we encounter someone in a wheelchair, we don’t ask him or her to follow us up a flight of stairs. If we know an employee has a heart condition, we don’t ask him or her to perform strenuous manual labor. We don’t demean a person with diabetes for testing his or her blood glucose levels in the middle of the day.

For all those folks, we likely know of their condition. We can see the wheelchair. Chances are, the person with the heart condition or diabetes informed us how it changed their lives and what they can and can’t do.

We would we none of those folk to buck up, to simply pray away their ailments, to stop bringing us down with their condition.

That’s not the case for those with mental health issues.

Mental health — anything from anxiety to depression to anger to fear to more complex behavioral issues or hallucinations — can come the same way any disease or disorder can come.

We could be born with it, with conditions such as bipolar disorder linked to hereditary issues, same as heart conditions or high blood pressure.

We could get it from our environment, with plenty of research linking certain pollutants such as lead to behavior issues, same as plenty of research links other pollutants to cancer.

We could do it to ourselves, like the people who keep signing up for those multimillion-dollar NFL contracts despite the documented risk of behavior-changing brain trauma, same way some people keep making poor diet choices despite the well-documented risk of diabetes or heart problems.

Or it could happen to us. Same as a car crash can take away our ability to walk, accidental brain injuries can change our behavior. And growing bodies of research show emotional traumas — a rape, physical abuse, verbal abuse, loss, grief, consistent childhood stress or sadness, witnessing tragedy, a war — actually physically rewire our brain to work in new ways, affecting the way adrenaline, blood, and other chemicals responsible for fight or flight responses flow through our bodies.

In short, some emotional traumas, if left untreated, can take away our ability to walk, same as that car crash.

Yet we as a society, despite progress in very recent years, still treat mental health differently than physical health.

And that, I think, is because we still don’t talk enough about it.

We talk about strokes, so many of us know to watch for drooping faces. But we don’t talk about suicide, so we don’t know how to watch for the cues that could indicate someone we love is in trouble.

We talk about heart attacks, so many of us know to watch for shooting pain in our left arms. But we don’t talk about depression, so many of us don’t know to seek help when we suddenly stop loving the things we once loved.

We talk about heart disease, so many of our restaurants highlight heart-healthy options on their menus. But we don’t talk about chronic anxiety, so few of our employers tolerate an employee who calls in sick without the sniffles.

Because we don’t talk openly about mental health the same way we talk about physical health — and, in fact, often look down on those who suffer, viewing them as weak for not straightening themselves out — we stigmatize the disease to the point those suffering with mental illness often feel uncomfortable sharing their pain, even with a professional.

A coworker with a heart condition my tell us what he or she can’t do, but a coworker with depression will tuck it away, press on, make things worse.

We’ve made progress, but we have to keep talking.

We have to make it OK to not be OK.

Only then can we fully understand and support our loved ones.

Only then might those with the power to change policies or invest resources to make things better actually do so.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-354-3112 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today