The Mental Illness Mishap

When I was three years old, I witnessed, for the first time, an instance of my schizophrenic father’s manic episode. At that time, I was far too young to understand the meaning behind the cacophony of glass breaking, of my mother’s shrill screams, and the reason behind my brother’s stifled breathing as he picked me off the ground to flee outside for safety. I was too young to understand the demeaning smirks of the cops who would arrive on the scene, whose actions I would comprehend as I matured. Mentally, despite becoming a teenager, I was too young to also perceive the depression of my brother and sister — my sister’s anorexia and the fears my brother held of the genetic inheritance of schizophrenia on the male side. Despite this prior disposition, I was at least innately aware that something was amiss not only in the household, but in terms of society as a whole towards mental illness.

The predicament of mental illness and its lack of support is one which has been prevalent and progressively worsening throughout the years, yet ignored to an extent which is nearly irrecoverable. In fact, between 2011 and 2030, the cumulative economic output loss associated with mental disorders is thereby projected to US$ 16.3 trillion worldwide, comparable to somatic ailments such as diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular diseases.

However, to reduce this issue to that of “socioeconomic” consequences is more of a euphemism for the events at large. More likely than not, the notions of Ocala, Palmdale, Santa Fe, Noblesville, or Noblesville West Middle School, Highland High, and Forest High School will resurface memories of preceding incidents. If an average of 1 shooting per week, and in schools no less, is not an indication of what the situation has culminated towards, then there is surely none tragic enough to incur tangible action. Yet, for us to initiate tangible action, there is the importance of confronting the term: “stigma”.

By denotation, a stigma is a “mark of disgrace”. However, there is more of a backstory to what people may call “the mental illness stigma”. No, having a neurological imbalance does not warrant for one to be labeled as a ignominy. In fact, I am so fervent in this belief that I would rather state that this conception of the mentally ill is a self-fulfilling prophecy. In this day and age, or rather, for the past several centuries, the mentally ill have been taught to feel shame, and by the conventions of society alone.

• They are more likely to encounter law enforcement than receive medical treatment.
• They are forced into de-facto warehouses of jails, prisons and nursing homes more than ever before after the 2008 recession, with our states cutting over $4 billion in public mental health funding
• Contrary to their image as being perpetrators for violence, they are more likely to be victims themselves
• They have higher rates of homelessness
• On a less statistical note, it is argued that law enforcement should include practice in specifically handling the mental ill, as shown, for example, when a mental health worker was shot while helping a man with autism in Florida.

Therefore, it is no wonder that individuals facing mental illness are afraid to seek the medical and emotional support they need that can lead to recovery. Even then, there are yet more issues to be addressed, such as how patients diagnosed with depression are more likely to be neglected of a follow-up by their primary physician.

The 1700s were a condonable time where those with psychological problems were quarantined because people did not know what other options were available.

The 1800s were an improvement, with Dorothea Dix addressing the viewpoints of mental illness with hospitals specially dedicated to the point. However, the now-banned practice of lobotomies (as well as other brain surgeries I have not mentioned) still reflected a contradictory outlook.

Hundreds of years later, we come to the modern day, where we may have the potential to be more informed than in the past, but arguably just as prone to inaction and ignorance. Instead of progressing in the issue, we have stagnated enough so as to fall backwards, with only 44.20% of need being met due to a lack of 3,397 mental health practitioners in the United States, as announced on September 30, 2017 by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). This is certainly reassuring when considering the 2018 proposal for an eighteen percent decrease, a total of $15.1 billion, in the already meager federal budget for the Department of Health & Human Services.

The money that both our federal and state governments are attempting to salvage via the reduction of funding for mental health programs is a decision that is ultimately contradicting its intended effect. For, if we truly cut off what little support that we have for a health issue just as deadly and pervasive as any other, the individual losses and overarching potential costs will, in the long run, not only endanger and destroy the lives of victims from mental illness, but gradually wear down our entire country economically and socially. This is not only something that “will” happen, but an outcome that has already begun to come into fruition in lieu of recent events.

Of course, the majority of us, myself included, are not fully-fledged legislators, stakeholders, politicians, company CEOs, or capable of magically enacting more first responders. However, even us run-of-the-mill citizens can resonate our voices throughout the course of our lives.

It can even start small, such as by admonishing the statement that a depressed individual should simply “get over their depression”. I doubt that any of us would simply tell someone close to our hearts to “get over their diabetes”. Likewise, a patient would not be expected to “manage cancer by themselves”.

The problems and solutions that are within reach of our society have always echoed the expectations of its individual members. Therefore, it is about time that we take the initiative to have our circumstances become a reflection of our ideals, values, beliefs, and capabilities.

After all, the best proponents of change never took it for granted, and never placed it within the hands of others. Rather, they initiated such action from themselves.

It’s about damn time we did so too.