Where I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s, we hid our mental illnesses. It was something to be ashamed of. Now we have a greater population of the mentally questionable.
In my bipolar opinion, mental illness is a physical brain disorder and should not be completely separated from physical illness. A disordered brain will have some sort of physical failure. Either or both physically witnessed trauma (severe stress) and natural (inherited) chemical dysfunction.
Social stigma
Society generally takes a barbaric role when it comes to dealing with mental illness. Typically hiding the mentally ill behind a social curtain, further separating the mentally disordered from the sociocultural world. Or else the opposite extreme by parading psychopathic behavior as “normal” to be accepted as such. Both are detrimental to a healthy society.
There are certain mental conditions which are, or can become, acceptably manageable. Some individuals with mental problems can function successfully in the marketplace and society. Sometimes even without the aid of medication and behavioral therapy specialists.
But if we hide problems with ignorance or mask problems with flamboyance, they don’t get fixed… they fester.
People can knowingly be mentality ill but fail to seek help because of the social stigmas. There’s also the mentally ill that don’t know they’re sick.
I believe that if society treated mental illness like it treats diabetes and high blood pressure for example… as a stabilizable condition, then people would eventually become more aware of their symptoms and be more apt to seeking professional help.
Social curtains
The most destructive effect of society’s hiding and shaming of mental disorders is suicide. Since the mentally disturbed are basically socially rejected, hope for help is diminished.
Typically, if we discover that someone is mentally ill, we assume they’re incapable of normal behavior. You might be surprised to learn that your workmate or good friend has a mental disorder that they’ve been hiding for a long time.
The primary benefit from socially accepting mental illness as a stabilizable condition, is that the mentally ill can potentially gain supportive acceptance from society as a whole. In a similar way that we support the physically challenged.
We have empathy for physical problems we don’t necessarily experience, why not empathize with mental illnesses.
Understanding mental illness a paradoxical perplexity because mental illness is mostly unacceptable and incomprehensible to mainstream society. Which is in itself a form of mental illness. Ignoring or being unaware of a problem is way more dangerous than dealing with it.
Dealing openly with mental illness can make the incomprehensible comprehensible. There’s always a reasonable reason for an illness. Exposing the root causes of problems leads to better solutions.
Portal/Healing page 13
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