BLAINE, Minn. – (May 5, 2016) – Nearly 7% of adults in the US experience depression. More than 18% experience anxiety. Mental health issues are more common that you might think. “May is Mental Health Month and its a time for our communities and our country to actually pay attention to our mental health. Our heads our actually connected to the rest of our body and we often don’t think about it,” said National Alliance On Mental Illness MN’s Sue Abderholden. Mental health is often less talked about, and less understood because it is harder to see.
This week, the Compassion Action Network held a community forum to talk about mental health, and how our society can do more to help. For example, there are simple ways you might be able to help someone you know with depression. “If you are living with depression it is pretty hard to reach out, you’re not feeling good about yourself and may not have energy to do that so I would say text that person, call that person, and say it’s a beautiful day lets go for a walk. Walks are beneficial because it gets the endorphins moving in the brain,” said Abderholden.
Beyond simply engaging them, sometimes helping to provide a basic need can go a long way. “You might also think about bringing a meal to them, it can be pretty hard to get the energy up to actually cook that meal or buy those groceries so doing that could really be beneficial to someone,” said Abderholden. Another way to help would be to understand common misconceptions about mental illness. Abderholden said two common misconceptions are focusing on adult mental health as half of the cases begin before the age of 14 and equating mental illness with violence as only 4% of violent crime is committed by someone with a mental illness. Changing your vocabulary can also be a be help. “When we think of words we can use to describe people with mental illness generally are not nice words, crazy deranged, things like that. We really should think about things like courage and determination,” said Abderholden.
For those who do deal with a mental illness, or those who think they might have some symptom of anxiety, depression, or something else, Abderholden reminds everyone, that like all illnesses, a real diagnosis and real treatment do help. “What we know for any healthcare is early identification and treatment leads to the best outcomes. Unfortunately people with mental illness live with their symptoms for more than 10 years before seeking help and you can imagine what can happen during that time…people really need to look to get treated early,” said Abderholden.
Asking for help can be scary. Seeking treatment can be tough, but taking the first step can mean that things will get better. “I think we can be scared of a lot of health care conditions that people put off and of course this is certainly one of them. Some of the signs and symptoms are changes in what you do, sleeping too much, sleeping to little, eating too much, eating too little, not enjoying things you used to do before whether it be golf or book club or whatever it might be. When you see those changes you should get treatment and therapy is really about changing the way you view yourself in the world…and it works, it absolutely works,” said Abderholden. For resources on Mental Health Month click here.
