May Is Mental Health Month

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Today, May 1st, marks the beginning of Mental Health Month. Brain disorders have been in the news quite a lot lately, so this is a particularly good time to talk about mental health and those who are affected. One in five Americans lives with one or more diagnosable mental illnesses, and by association so do the millions of family members, co-workers, and friends of the afflicted.

Yet MI still carries a stigma which is proving very difficult to eliminate. It doesn't help that politicians and the public perpetuate stereotypes by blaming violent crime on the mentally ill. With all the gun violence in the news of late, it's become the default position to question the criminal's mental state and assume that he or she is "sick". The truth is, mentally ill individuals are far more likely to be the victims of crime, not perpetrators.

I hope this May will be a time to have an honest dialogue about mental health, and for people to understand that something needs to be done FOR the mentally ill, not just about them. Addressing the lack of funding for mental health care is a place to start. And let it begin with us.

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In total agreement with this! I also think that we need to address that there's still a lot of stigma on people who have MI that comes from nurses and other healthcare providers even though we have the education and ought to know better.

But as someone who has my own struggles with mental illness, I assure you that you are treated completely differently by healthcare staff when you are being treated for that and it's discouraging. I get that there's a lot of us struggling with burnout and that the resources to help those with MI is stretched way too thin, we still need to treat them with compassion.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
In total agreement with this! I also think that we need to address that there's still a lot of stigma on people who have MI that comes from nurses and other healthcare providers even though we have the education and ought to know better.

But as someone who has my own struggles with mental illness, I assure you that you are treated completely differently by healthcare staff when you are being treated for that and it's discouraging. I get that there's a lot of us struggling with burnout and that the resources to help those with MI is stretched way too thin, we still need to treat them with compassion.

I hear you! Some of the most judgmental people I've ever met were in healthcare. I'll never forget going to an urgent care facility once to have a broken toe looked at, and it never occurred to me that my psychiatric history would be an issue; but when you have a diagnosis like bipolar I splashed all over your medical record, it sticks out like a sore thumb, and your CC tends to take a back seat. I was quizzed about my meds at length as well. That was all before he even checked out the toe! I am a college-educated RN, and yet I felt reduced to just a "psych patient".

I have also worked with, and for, people who weren't even subtle in their distaste and distrust for the mentally ill. The safe room in the ER was called the "psycho room" in earshot of everybody around, including the patient who was unfortunate enough to occupy it. I was in there myself once and wondered what my former co-workers were saying about me. I have lost jobs too, essentially for working while bipolar and asking for reasonable accommodations so I could continue to do my job. One supervisor even told me that my work performance was consistent with my diagnosis! She was probably right, as I was pretty unstable at the time and hadn't gotten the meds right yet, but it was obvious that she was looking at me through the lens of my mental illness and not as an employee who was struggling and needed help.

I'm "retired" now (went on disability in 2015, actually) and I want to do what I can to further understanding of those who live with mental health conditions. I'm a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and am currently in training to be a crisis counselor for the Crisis Text Line; I also write a blog and post here frequently on mental health issues. I have found Allnurses has evolved over time into a place where nurses with these concerns can feel safe in discussing them, and hopefully we can lead the way toward a more accepting attitude among healthcare providers.

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Hi, I'm Jen and I have major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. I'm pretty open about my struggles with living my best life, because I want to encourage other people to open up, too.

I see a lot of comments about "throwing pills" at things to fix them, when all you need is exercise, or to eat better or to get more sleep. These comments always sort of make my heart ache. I'd much rather just go for a jog than take 5 different pills a day (and therapy) to be functional. I've struggled with my mental health for over 15 years now.

We need to change the questions from "why are you sad" or "what's making you anxious" to "how can I help you feel safe" or "what can I do to help you through this".

Thank you for your post.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Great thoughts, Jen, and thank you for your post. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard well-meaning people say that if a mentally ill person would just exercise, or eat healthy, or take vitamins, or do yoga, or all of the above, I'd be a rich woman today. I've even tried praying the bipolar away, and that doesn't work either...at least, it hasn't so far. I have to take pills or I will die, plain and simple---I can easily see myself either crashing my car at 100 mph flying down the freeway on a manic high, or doing a swan-dive off a tall building in the middle of a black depression. They are NOT "happy pills". They simply allow me to function.

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.
They are NOT "happy pills". They simply allow me to function.

This hurts my heart for you, and for Jen too - but I'm glad you both spoke up and are sharing. If you had asthma, nobody would tell you to pray it away. You'd have albuterol and that would be that.

Thank you for reminding us all to do better. We know better, we just need to do better.

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