Currently, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), approximately 1 in 5 adults in the United States experiences mental illness every year. Serious mental illnesses, that “substantially interfere with or limit one or more major life activities.” account for 1 in 25 members of the US population. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) ranks suicide as the 10th leading cause of death among all ages. In 2013, mental disorders rose to the top of the list of most costly conditions. Statistics aside, it is clear that mental health and substance use disorders are important, and real. Yet to the many people who live with these challenges, the culture in this country is less than supportive. Media portrays mental health in a way that encourages stigma, and many treat mental health as something to be silenced instead of spoken about. Yet it is impossible, due to the numbers of us living with similar struggles, that we are as alone as we feel. Stigma thrives when we hide, and it is by self disclosure and peer support that we as a country will learn how to treat mental health effectively.
One of the greatest barriers that I faced when wondering whether or not to seek mental health treatment was fear of the unknown. I had no frame of reference for what to expect. When my father died of suicide, my family told everyone that he “died suddenly.” It wasn’t that we desired to ignore reality, it was that we did not know what to say. As my depression developed, I was told to just “think positive,” and called lazy when I couldn’t get out of bed. I labeled myself as “different” and “crazy,” believing that it didn’t make sense to try and make friends, no one would understand me. I look at the statistics mentioned above, and wonder why, if 1 in 25 other adults also faced serious mental health challenges, did I feel so alone? Why should anyone? Instead of using our peers as support, we constantly search for differences. It is time, for us as a country, to have a mental health awakening. I believe that begins at the personal level. When a peer helps a peer by sharing a bit of experience, the world seems less scary. There are 43.8 million of us in the United States living with mental illness. We are not alone.