Recovery is Possible

What would it feel like to live life in fear?  Fear of being rejected by folks you meet on the street and in the grocery store or your own family is afraid of you – and if that was not bad enough, you have these pesky voices running loose in your head day after day.  Fear that your disability causes others to discount your ability to be a productive part of the community.  Many people with mental illness struggle with these types of fears every day.  Mental illnesses affect ONE in FOUR of us at some point in our lives.  This means we have at least one relative, friend, neighbor or co-worker living with a mental illness and it is just as common as heart disease.

Like President Bush said, “Americans must understand and send this message:  mental disability is not a scandal – it is an illness.  And like physical illness, it is treatable.” No one is “immune” from mental illness no matter your age, race, religion, income or education level, but if you have a mental illness you can recover.  Recovery is possible.  Only half of people treated for heart disease recover, where 8 out of 10 of folks treated for depression recover.  As a community we need to come together to get rid of this notion that you can’t recover from depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, obsessions, phobias or other mental illnesses.  We believe you can recover from alcoholism or diabetes, but fail to give someone with a mental illness the same hope?

Just like treatment for any physical illnesses or addiction, there are medications to take, activities to avoid and steps to take toward recovery and resiliency.  For Example, if you are diabetic you may find it hard to stay away from sweets, but this is a life change you must make in order to recover.  Whether you have a physical illness or a mental illness all you want is to get well.  The first step is for our community to make mental health a priority by changing our own personal attitudes, dispelling myths about mental illness, and making mental wellness, along with physical wellness, a part of our every day lives.