May is Mental Health Month. This is a month when health care professionals and those who are aware of the devastating burden of untreated mental illness take up the challenge of educating the community, friends and family about mental illness.
Mental illness has many cloaks of symptoms. Often, patients I see in practice oscillate between pervasive sadness, guilt, hopelessness, anger, agitation, and discontentment with life. It is difficult for someone to admit to feeling any of these emotions on a persistent basis because it requires a level of honesty and vulnerability with another person.
Some of the literature available on mental illness management highlights the fact that many can aide with the diagnosing and treating of mental illness. Often nurses, primary care providers, social workers, religious leaders and well-seasoned friends and family members can flag behaviors that are outside of normal and prompt seeking of evaluation of treatment.
Why suffer in silence one may ask? Why take so long to seek care another may inquire? In my experience, it is often difficult to know for sure when help is indicated when one is struggling with so many variables of life. Additionally, the barriers to seeking mental health are numerous. Common ones include – convenience with busy work schedules, the cost and lack of insurance coverage, not having the right resources available (such as good counselors and access to psychiatry services), and the list goes on and on.
Given that it is Mental Health Awareness Month, I challenge my colleagues, family and friends to make an effort to screen for loneliness, sadness, mood changes, sleep disturbances, anger concerns, hopelessness, and thoughts of suicide. Sometimes, we can unearth areas of concern and provide help if we listen more, show more compassion and make genuine attempts to understand one another despite our differences.
Remember to access crisis intervention by calling the national suicide prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Feel free to discuss mental health concerns with your primary care provider. If needed, you may present to any emergency department if you feel your emotions are out of control and you are at your lowest. There are numerous counseling agencies and behavioral health practices that offer psychological and psychiatric assessments and treatment. Don’t suffer alone. Live life to the fullest. Seek help if needed.