By Lisa Twerski
Embracing Mental Illness. The words alone must create some confusion and much head-scratching. After all, why would we want to embrace mental illness? Aren’t we trying to cure it? Isn’t mental illness something that nobody wants to experience, and nobody wants to embrace?
The short answer is yes, we do try to cure it, but the realistic answer is that it is not always possible, and the long answer is that even when it is possible, mental illness must generally be embraced before a cure can be reached.
Most people are able to understand that one can’t really solve a problem when one hasn’t acknowledged that they have one in the first place. However, when it comes to mental illness, people often try and fight the existence of the illness, even if they understand the aforementioned in theory. Even in cases when one is able to acknowledge that there is some type of significant problem, most tend to minimize the extent of the problem, the degree to which they need help, and whether or not it is the most appropriate type of treatment for their actual needs or the degree to which they actually will come forth in the treatment process. There is almost a bargaining that takes place where acknowledgement comes, but only to the degree to which denial of the problem can no longer be maintained. This sets up a situation where the acceptance of the degree to which the mental health problem exists is always a step behind the problem’s severity, and the pursuit of help follows suit.
Although there are always exceptions as each experience with mental illness is uniquely different, this does seem to be a common and understandable reaction. Facing the onset of a mental illness can be intimidating. It is a difficult reality to face. Complicating things is the fact that for many people, there is a history without mental illness that predates the onset of their diagnosis. Therefore, when a new mental health illness starts to affect an individual who never had to grapple with anything like this before, he/she will often try to minimize the problem; they tell themselves that what is going on is not really that bad and will work very hard to compensate and cover up the progression of their depression, anxiety, addiction, etc. It usually isn’t until the individual’s efforts at compensation, or their personal pain, is so great that they eventually take that first step and go to seek help. At that point, unfortunately, the problem has usually progressed to a greater degree and the individual may require a higher level of care. Had he/she sought help earlier, the treatment process may have been less difficult, or, at the very least, the fallout from the individual’s struggles may have not been as great.
With this in mind, perhaps we can better understand the idea of “embracing mental illness.” Though it is important, this is not the end goal, to embrace and stop there. The idea is to embrace our struggles, be able to face and deal with the illness more immediately, and to get the help that is needed, and not the help that is more comfortable, such as getting psychiatric medication from a physician instead of a psychiatrist. It is this, then, that is the goal: To embrace what we are going through so that the best, most appropriate help is pursued, so that the healthiest outcome can be achieved.