Understanding Mental Illness

Mental health is a topic that many people don't like to talk about. The term "Mentally Ill" has a sort of negative stigma that makes people feel uncomfortable. One of the major downsides to this; is if people don't talk about mental illness, they won't be able to understand it. And if we can't understand what it's like for a person suffering from a mental illness, we will never be able to give them the help or support that they need to overcome their disorder.

We know today that there are many different types of mental illness. Some of the more well-known types are: dyslexia, obsessive compulsive disorder, Tourette’s, and schizophrenia. But even something as common as depression or anxiety are forms of mental illness. If we think back to the 1950s, our understanding of mental illness was very different. In the 50s it was common practice for doctors to preform lobotomies on patients suffering from various mental illnesses. A lobotomy is a procedure in which the connections between your prefrontal cortex and the rest of your brain are severed. This is usually done by inserting a long spike through your eye socket into your frontal lobe, and then rotating the spike until the connections are severed. As barbaric as this may sound, in the 1950s this was cutting edge medicine. It just goes to show you that the more we come to understand something as complex as mental illness; the greater the chance we have of effectively treating and helping those suffering from mental illness.

I think that the media and television have done a great job in recent years, by shedding light on the importance of mental health. If you turn on the Lifetime network; it’s virtually impossible to watch a program without a character suffering from some sort of mental illness. Also, the media recently has been pushing the issue of whether or not concussions are linked to mental illness. The more light we can shed on the subject of mental health, the better we might come to understand these complex disorders.

After reading some of the poems by Kaitlyn Tramp, I realize how hard it can be to know if someone close to you is suffering with a mental illness. We assume that if a person’s seems happy and content that everything in their life is fine. When in reality, a person suffering is often trying to hide their pain from the world. So that happy appearance they put on every day; is actually hiding a very dark and lonely individual, in desperate need of help. I found her writings to be inspirational; in how she was able to cope with her inner demons by writing poems. I hope her writings find someone else who is suffering, and help them to confront their illness.