Mental Illness Awareness Week

Tuesday, 04 October 2011 15:22

Mental Illness Awareness Week

Written by Scott LaMar, Director of Radio Smart Talk

Radio Smart Talk for Wednesday, October 5:

October 2-8 is designated as Mental Illness Awareness Week. This year's theme is "changing attitudes, changing lives." The goal for the week is to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.

Professionals say about one in four adults will experience a mental health issue this year and one out of every 17 Americans live with a serious mental illness. As prevalent as mental illness may be, there are still people who view or treat those uffering from a mental ill harshly, don't understand or have little compassion.

On Wednesday's Radio Smart Talk, we'll focus on mental illness and the myths, misconceptions, and treatments.

Listen to the program:

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comments

# Susan Blake 2011-10-05 19:08

I totally disagree with the two "professionals" you interviewed today regarding the definition of mental illness. The words they used -- "chemical imbalance in the brain", "brain disease", and "possible genetic abnormality" are misleading, unproven, and harmful. There is a wide spectrum of emotional behavior and most behavior which society/medicine characterizes as "mental illness" is part of that spectrum. Conditions such as depression and PTSD are normal brain reactions to excessive stress, mistreatment, and other environmental factors. The brain reacts in the way it was programmed to react in these situations and changes the brain chemistry so that the person can cope. Withdrawal is a form of coping as is the overactive flight response of PTSD. It is not the other way around.

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# Rose Alberghini 2011-11-02 15:19

Being one of the two "professionls" that were on the show, I will agree with you that there is a "wide spectrum of emotional behavior" and the brain may react to some situations in a way that may be a coping mechanism. However, the depression that I (and many people like me) had for much of my adult life (until I got treatment with the proper medication) was not caused by any event at all. It just happened. As a matter of fact I really had nothing to be depressed about. The medication gave me a life worth living again.
Although there may be cases where medication is overused and mental illness is misdiagnosed, many people do get the correct diagnosis and are helped by medication, and also benefit from therapy and developing their own personal coping skills.

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# Laura 2011-11-02 15:26

Whether or not you agree with their definition, I think we can all agree that the work that NAMI does - breaking the stigma against people with mental illness - is great work. We need more organizations like that; and more media outlets like WITF promoting their work instead of glossing over it and only promoting the bad news. Go NAMI!!

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