Mental Health Acceptance Month
Not really, but I can't bring myself to use the word Awareness...
Mental Health Awareness Month was started in 1949 to bring attention to mental health, and has been recognized every May since then. However, the mental health movement started forty years before due to the efforts of Clifford Whittingham Beers.
Beers suffered with depression and “paranoia,” and was hospitalized multiple times with episodes he suffered. First hospitalized in 1900, he was “lucky” enough to be interred at a private institution, but he had at least two other stays at hospitals when his depression relapsed. By 1908, Beers published a book, A Mind that Found Itself , describing the maltreatment he both witnessed and experienced at the hands of these hospital staff. Also in 1908, Beers founded the first organization dedicated to reforming the treatment of the mentally ill, the Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene (now called Mental Health Connecticut), and in 1909 founded the National Committee for Mental Hygiene (now Mental Health America). Finally, in 1913, Beers founded the Clifford Beers Clinic (now the Clifford Beers Community Care Center).
Mental health has always been a passion of mine, being on the Autism Spectrum, and having been diagnosed with Depression, Anxiety and Social Skills deficits. As a kid, I knew that my paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather both had depression, and my grandmother was actually hospitalized with it in the 1950s. Beers’s ideas were slowly replacing those of the asylum practitioners in the 1800s, but there was still a major stigma for those dealing with mental illness (another term I REALLY don’t like, but I don’t have an alternate, so I have to use it). That’s why people like my grandmother were typically sent away until they could recover from their melancholia.
Nowadays, we have come a long way in treating mental illness, and helping people come out of episodes. Through modern day medications, counseling, or both, people can live decent lives, and recover quickly from mental health issues. We have also become better at diagnosing Mental Illness sooner and for milder cases, and through the efforts of people like Beers, we are bringing awareness to the general population.
However, we still have a long way to go. When I first had a depressive episode (in 1999), I sought out help, knowing that how I was feeling wasn’t normal or OK. However, many people I know are still reluctant to seek out assistance for their issues. One person I know took years before they first acknowledged that they had anxiety. And, to this day, they still won’t bring it up to their doctor or seek out counseling. We need to remove the stigma from people’s minds and admit that Mental Health is important to everyone. No one should have to be concerned about others thinking less of them because they have a mental illness. But, until then, there are resources we can access to help others recognize when they need help, and direct them to places they can receive support.
RESOURCES: