Hollywood often portrays people with mental illness as being unkempt, maybe with kooky hair and disheveled clothes. While that may be an accurate depiction for movie characters, more often than not, the face of mental illness is much different. It can be your co-worker, neighbor, spouse or brother. It can even be yourself.
According to information from Mental Health First Aid USA, in any given year, approximately one of every five Americans will experience a diagnosable mental disorder. “Mental health problems are more common than heart disease, lung disease and cancer combined,” the book reads.
While a June 14 Clay County Progress article discussed suicide and how to help stop it, this article is written to help non-clinical people understand mental health disorders and mental health distress. This is important because some mental health issues may be helped by employing self-care strategies or restoring one’s emotional balance — something a friend or family member may be able to assist. Being in psychological distress does not always indicate a mental disorder.
First, here is information learned from Mental Health First Aid USA training, taught at Hinton Center. Resources quoted, as well as information about receiving training, will be listed at the end of this article.
The manual describes a mental disorder or mental illness this way. “A diagnosable illness that affects a person’s thinking, emotional state and behavior and disrupts the person’s ability to work or carry out other daily activities and engage in satisfying personal relationships. A mental health problem is a broader term that includes both mental health disorders and symptoms of mental disorders that may be severe enough to warrant the diagnosis of a mental disorder.”
A person should not be defined by his or her perceived condition. Hinton trainer, Dawn Livingston stressed, “We do not call a person ‘a cancer’ or ‘a broken leg,’ but we often hear people described as ‘a manic depressive’ or ‘a schizophrenic.’ That kind of derogatory labeling is disrespectful.”
As the June 14 article said, discussing mental health has been taboo for generations. Due to the stigma of mental illness, many people in distress are reluctant to seek help and will suffer silently. Sometimes stigma will keep people from acknowledging they need help and will cause a person to internalize negative personal feelings. Stigma can impact every area of a person’s life, from housing and employment, to relationships.
Stigma may also cause some people to be mistrustful of someone offering help. It can also be one of the highest hurdles for recovery. As a matter of fact, only 41 percent of people with mental illness seek treatment and the median delay for someone to seek treatment is 10 years.
The manual asks reade r s s o m e i m p o r t a n t questions.”What would happen if you found out someone close to you had a diagnosable mental health problem? Would it change your opinion of that person? Would it cause you to question his or her judgement? Would you find yourself being less than honest or ‘walking on eggshells’ when talking to him or her?”
There are several misconceptions about mental disorders. These include:
• People with mental disorders are violent.
• Mental disorders are signs of weakness.
• If someone wants to be happy, they can be happy.
• Ignoring the problem and using willpower will make it go away.
• Healthy people aren’t impacted by traumatic events. Those who are, really have a mental health problem.
Think about this. Satisfying, productive lives are lived by many people with bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorder, schizophrenia and other mental health disorders. They do community service, raise children, vote, work jobs, own homes and operate businesses among other things.
Mental Health First Aid teaches an action plan with the acronym, ALGEE. Assess for risk of suicide or harm. Listen non judgemental. Give reassurance and information. Encourage appropriate professional help and encourage self-help and other support strategies.
Some ways a person may help another are:
• If someone is experiencing delusions, it is best not to try to reason with them.
• It is important to listen without judgement and pay attention to what the person is saying.
• Pay attention to your own nonverbal cues like your tone of voice and body language which may appear unsupportive or even judgemental.
• People with mental health and addiction problems have a better outcome if family and others close to them are not critical of them.
• Helping the person live more stress free can help.
• Encourage the person to contact other support like friends, family, clergy and peer support.
• Some people will need professional help. Offer to make the call with them.
Hope is the most important part of recovery so always try to convey an optimistic attitude about the outcome.
Hinton Center offered Mental Health First Aid to teach ordinary citizens how to intervene and find help for those in a mental health crises including thoughts of suicide. Hinton has plans to offer more training in a few months. To register, e-mail Director of Program Ministries Dawn Livingston at: dawn@hintoncenter.org, call (828) 389-8336 or visit: www. hintoncenter.org.
The Web site for MHFA is: www.mentalhealthfirstaid. org.
Other online resources are:
• w w w. m e n t a l healthamerica.net.
• www.freedomfromfear. org.
• www.ecouch.anu.edu. au.
• www.recoveryinternational.org.
• www.findtreatment. samhsa.org.
Important phone numbers are:
• American Psychological Association Public Education Line at (800) 964-2000.
• American Psychiatric Association Answer Center at (888)-35-PSYCH.
• Vaya Health has a 24 hour crisis hotline at (800) 849-6127.
• The National Suicide Prevention Hotline number is (800) 273-8255. 1-800-273- TALK.