Since 1949, the month of May has been set aside as Mental Health Month. With much attention being given to behavioral health problems these days, it seems like as good a time as any to tally up some of what we know and what we don’t know about these often overlooked challenges to health and wellbeing.
We know that mental illness can happen to anybody and that it’s more common than people think. Estimates are that one in four adults in the U.S. will suffer from a mental health condition in any given year, according to the National Institute of Health. In teens 13 to 18, about 20 percent experience a severe mental disorder in any year, and for kids 8 to 15, it’s around 13 percent.
We know that about 15.7 million adults in the U.S. had major depression in 2014. That’s enough to fill every major league baseball and football stadium in the country 4.5 times. With anxiety disorder, estimates are around 42.5 million in any year. That’s more than the number of Netflix subscribers in the U.S. in 2015. And we know that a whopping 3.3 million adults 18-64 will have bipolar illness in any year. That’s more than the populations of San Francisco, Seattle, Nashville, Indianapolis and New Orleans combined.
We know that those struggling with mental health conditions are our friends and family members. No socioeconomic class, nationality, gender, religion, or race is immune from this type of health problem, or any other for that matter. We know too that the struggle often means great suffering for individuals, their families and their loved ones. The pain is real and the consequences can mean loss of jobs, homes, social connections, physical health, self-esteem and other things many healthy people take for granted. For some 34,000 Americans of all ages, the suffering is so severe that the prospect of death by suicide is preferable to their daily existence, which seems, at the moment, a future without hope.
We know that often the stigma that mental health problems carry with them makes matters worse. We live in a culture that has been conditioned into thinking that mental illness equals violence, bizarre and unpredictable behavior, distrust and poverty. While an abundance of facts refute all these fallacies, the stigma is as pernicious as dandelions in springtime, but far more dangerous. It causes people to feel cut off, alienated or second-class, because others treat them like they have some sort of psychological leprosy thought to be virulent, contagious and frightening. This labeling often prevents people from reaching out for help and getting the treatment that could lessen their suffering.
Speaking of that, we know that many interventions can be made when mental health fades. For example, medicines, counseling, social connections, employment supports and other things can make the road to recovery faster and easier. We know that the more severe the illness is, it often requires a combination of different types of therapies. It’s safe to say that finding the right provider, treatment, program or service is a process of discovery, often trial-and-error, that isn’t easy. .
What we don’t know is what happens in the brain that goes haywire in the first place. Our ability to understand the root causes of mental illness still has too many unanswered questions to say anything conclusive.
The idea that a “chemical imbalance”’ is the culprit is far too simplistic; what’s more likely is the answer lies in getting a better understanding of the electro-chemical basis of how regions of the brain connect with one another to process our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It’s more a matter of circuitry instead of chemistry. The human brain, the most complex thing in the universe as far as we know, is an incredibly difficult thing to study.
We don’t know why many states, New Hampshire among them, wait until there is a tragedy or a lawsuit before they take more steps to help people in need. Similarly, other funders playing a role in our country’s mediocre health care system had to be forced to hold this class of health problems on par with other physical problems. Could it have something to do with money?
We don’t know why, even in the aftermath of litigation, it still seems publicly acceptable each day to have dozens of N.H citizens who need the level of care that can only be supplied at New Hampshire Hospital wait for days in emergency rooms for the appropriate and caring service they will get once they arrive in Concord. We don’t know why we expect community mental health centers like Monadnock Family Services to subsist on levels of funding put in place about 10 years ago that were inadequate then and are even more so today. Could this too, have something to do with money?
The organization that promotes May as mental health month is Mental Health America. It was started over a century ago by a young man with his own experience of mental illness; his voice of advocacy and hope has continued to bring many enlightened ideas, values and practices into the world’s approach to treatment and services.
Let’s all hope that this movement continues to reform our own thinking, policies and priorities so that anyone afflicted by mental health disorders can more easily improve their health and wellness, lead a self-directed life, and achieve their full potential.
Phil Wyzik is CEO of Monadnock Family Services.