National Mental Illness Awareness Week is celebrated the first full week in October. This year, that means October 4th through the 10th, which happens to be World Mental Health Day.
There has always been a stigma with mental health. This stems, I believe, from fear… fear of the unknown. However, we know psychiatric disorders aren’t demon possession. So, why do we look at it in a negative way? We shouldn’t. In America alone, it is believed that 1 in 4 people are afflicted by 1 or more mental ailments. Hiding the problem only exasperates it. Let’s start educating one another and opening up the conversation for a better today and healthier tomorrow.
Mental illness can be the result of abuse, trauma, or the result of physiological changes to the brain caused by bacterial viruses. Parasites can even cause them. I guess I could see how there may have been cases when one infected person might have spread the infection, inciting more fear… But, in a social world, that is why healthcare and communication are so vital.
I have written a few books that deal with some of these issues. Mental health is important to me, especially as I deal with clinical depression, clinical anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). I wrote these books in hopes of helping to bring awareness and insight. I hope they can help at least one person.
