Stop it.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. I planned to write about a few topics.  My mind was filled with thoughts about culture, womanhood, stigma, and other factors which impact an individual's mental health. Then along came the AHCA debacle interrupting my thought process. Insert my mini rant about the current political climate. Simply stated: our president is bad for America's mental health. The new PTSD (google Post Trump Stress Disorder) is REAL. Some people's health has declined, relationships have been damaged, and many are fearful about their ability to access care on an ongoing basis. Proposed policies and budgets demonstrate a lack of concern for citizens' well being. This needs to stop. It's hard enough as it is for people to access services.

Every day I encounter people with stories of suffering in silence. Middle-aged women abused during childhood, yet learned to act like it didn't happen. Men who get into altercations with co-workers and call in sick multiple times per month because they're too depressed to function. Young adults complaining that something was "wrong" for years but their parents didn't believe in getting psychiatric treatment. They interact with people on a daily basis, but no one tells them to get help until their symptoms are severe. Why do people continue to treat mental illness like a taboo topic? Tell your mother, brother, son, cousin, friend, or coworker that they don't seem like their usual self. Let them know that you're concerned. Please stop ignoring what you see and hoping that it will magically resolve. Stop telling people that they will be alright when they say they're stressed or depressed. Encourage them to get some help. If someone tells you that they have chest pain, do you tell them they'll be alright? No, you tell them to go to the hospital. Believe it or not many people are relieved that someone cared enough to say something, or feel relieved that they were able to talk about what is bothering them. Sometimes they don't even realize how severe their symptoms are until someone lets them know.

So now that we've cleared that hurdle, a person makes it to an appointment. They may receive recommendations for therapy and or medication, and things such as eating a healthier diet and increasing exercise (yes, mental health providers care about this too). Please stop telling people that you think the diagnosis is wrong, or that they shouldn't take the medication because of something that happened to your sister's best friend's cousin.  There is way too much information available for this foolishness to continue (just thought of something else that needs to stop). I've had people tell me that they don't want a certain diagnosis because "that's serious", or "people with ____ are really crazy". Insert stigma and media reinforcement of mental health myths. What do I mean by this? in general, people act like mental illness has to be kept a secret. People come in without knowing their family history, because no one wanted to talk about it. Grandma was "crazy" and committed suicide, but no one knows what she had. But here's a person being encouraged to get treatment, because they're acting like grandma. It is almost without fail that a disclosure about someone's untreated psychiatric diagnosis follows news of mass shootings/acts of violence. "Sources reveal that the shooter received treatment for depression in the past..." Really? And I'm really curious about the "sources" of such information. Who are they? A negative image is painted when celebrities are hospitalized. Remember what happened to Kanye? Believe it or not, people refuse to accept diagnoses or base their understanding of symptoms on these images. This needs to stop.

Stop posting things about alternative treatments and negative information about medications on social media without checking the source first. Some of these people who call themselves experts are not. Some people hold the title Dr. because they have a PhD. or other doctorate degree, so it doesn't necessarily mean that they have medical/psychiatric credibility. And there is no medical establishment conspiracy to kill people with medications or keep people sick so we can make more money. The last thing I think needs to stop (at least for now): this blog post.