Mental illness is a pain.
And nothing in my 56 years of experience prepared me for dealing with mental illness when it struck my family.
Seemingly out of the blue, our loved one’s puzzling behavior began disrupting our lives in ways we could have never imagined. It took us more than seven years to untangle the fact that she was suffering from anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, all of which had been triggered by post-traumatic stress disorder that had emerged during her college years.
Compounded by addiction to prescription drugs, our loved one’s journey took literally dozens of specialists to discover her underlying illnesses and find adequate resources to develop a path to recovery.
Understanding what mental illness is or how these brain disorders can affect your loved one and your family takes a lot of effort on your part because of two factors.
First, stigma about mental illness and substance abuse is still pervasive in the 21st century, stifling our ability to talk openly about mental illness, substance abuse and suicide when it occurs. This seems remarkable considering that one in four adults will experience mental illness in any given year and that mental illness is the leading cause of disability in both the United States and Canada, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
In fact, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found in a 2009 survey that more than 45 million people had experienced serious mental illness in the preceding year. More than 20 percent of those who struggled with mental illness in 2008 were also suffering from a serious substance use disorder (abuse or dependence on alcohol, prescription or illicit drugs).
Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Association of Suicidology have reported that suicide is the third leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 15 and 24; and the vast majority of those who commit suicide are struggling with some sort of mental illness.
Second, our fractured health care system poorly supports the identification and treatment of brain disorders like anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
In fact, Kansas earned a “D” from the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 2009 in its report “Grading the States: A Report on America’s Mental Health Care System for Serious Mental Illness.” While this was an improvement over the report published in 2006, when Kansas received an “F,” there is still much to be done to improve the mental health systems in Kansas.
Missouri fared only slightly better, earning a “C” in the same report in both years.
We weren’t at all prepared for this fractured and substandard level of care. And my family is comprised of well-educated, upper-middle class individuals who have access to health insurance. What happens to those families who don’t have the education or resources to advocate for help in their times of crisis?
Yes, mental illness is a pain. And, not just for me, my loved one and my family. Mental illness touches us all. We need to be talking about it openly and honestly because there are effective treatments, if we can only find them and gain access.
Unfortunately, our journey more than seven years is not unique. In fact, we could consider ourselves lucky since the average time for finding effective treatment in the United States is 10 years after the onset of mental illness.
So it’s up to all of us to get busy talking; get educated, get the facts, and get help for your loved one and for yourself. Demand it!
One of the best places to begin is the National Alliance on Mental Illness ( www.nami.org), the largest grassroots mental health advocacy organization in the country. Through educational programs like Family-to-Family, you can find help and hope for developing a path to recovery for your loved one and your family. We did!
AS I SEE IT
Joy Koesten holds a doctorate in communication studies from the University of Kansas and teaches graduate courses in health communication, research methods, interpersonal and organizational communication at KU’s Edwards Campus. She is also a certified teacher for the Family-to-Family course through the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Koesten will facilitate this free course in partnership with Jewish Family Services of Greater Kansas City beginning Monday. Call 913-327-8250 to get on the wait list.
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