Never Stop Talking...Ever

  Mental illness is still a taboo subject for most people. Voices are lowered. Direct eye contact is avoided. We say that people have bad "nerves". Or they are "sensitive". It's just an "episode". Let me translate those phrases for you...anxiety, depression, mental illness.

  The statistics are staggering. 1 in 5 people will struggle with mental illness. Only 1 in 3 will seek and receive help. Think about those numbers. Chances are in your immediate family...parents, siblings and children...at least one will suffer from some form of this disease. 

  These are your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and bosses. They are police officers, doctors, waiters, teachers and garbage collectors. It is your children. Your children. It could be you. Or me.

  People with cancer get our sympathy. So do people with heart disease, diabetes, crohn's or hepatitis. People rush to help them and their families cope with these "unasked for" diseases. But say you or someone you know is suffering from depression or schizophrenia, people can't get away fast enough.

  It's not as if people are unsympathetic. But we don't know what to say or how to say it. We feel like it's better to say nothing than to say the wrong thing. We are embarrassed. Or feel the  person would/should be embarrassed. Wrong wrong wrong.

  Say something. Don't know what to say? Ask someone who does. Ask your doctor, minister, teacher, social worker or parent. Google mental health lines in your area. Not one locally? Call collect or find an 800 number. Walk into a medical clinic or hospital and say you need help. Keep trying. Keep talking. Never stop talking.

  Unfortunately my family has lost several people to mental illness. We are reluctant experts on the subject. 

  We will never stop talking. Ever.

  Ang