May is a great month! Spring is in full bloom (which isn’t entirely GOOD news for those of us with allergies), and it’s a time to celebrate our very special Moms. There’s another tradition we observe in May. It’s the time we become more aware of mental health and mental illness. Mental illness is a huge issue, and there’s still a lot of misinformation about it in our popular culture.

The American Psychiatric Association defines mental illness as “any health condition involving changes in thinking, emotion or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illness is associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities.” Still, the majority of people with mental illness continue to function in their daily lives despite their illness.

Almost everyone is touched in some way by mental illness. It affects one in five adults, nearly 47 million Americans. And of those, 11 million are living with serious mental illness, one that limits major life activities. Serious mental illnesses include disorders such as major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

In addition, 14.8 million people in the US have an alcohol use disorder and 8.1 million have an illegal drug disorder. Further, 2 million Americans have an opioid disorder, which includes prescription pain reliever and/or heroin abuse.

Why are so many people affected by mental illness? The exact cause of mental illness is unknown, but researchers have uncovered a few factors that may contribute to its development. One is genetics. Many mental illnesses run in families, suggesting people inherit at least a susceptibility to developing a particular illness.

An imbalance of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters has been linked to some types of mental illness as well. These chemicals help your brain cells communicate with each other. If they can’t communicate properly because the chemicals are out of whack, clear messages can’t get through the brain.

Another contributing factor is psychological trauma such as severe physical, emotional or sexual abuse endured as a child, witnessing a traumatic event or experiencing significant loss. Environmental factors can also contribute. These include the death of someone close to you, a divorce or a big change in your life, such as a new job. These factors often foster substance abuse.

Whatever the cause, mental illness is just that, an ILLNESS, not a weakness in your character.

Mental illness runs the gamut, from mild depression to psychotic schizophrenia. Each illness has its own set of symptoms, but I’m giving you a few general signs and symptoms so you know what to watch out for, in yourself and others. These are some of the common signs and symptoms of mental illness:

• Sleep or appetite changes
• Mood changes
• Withdrawal and loss of interest in activities
• Problems thinking
• Decrease in functioning
• Illogical thinking
• Nervousness
• Unusual behavior

If you notice these symptoms and are willing to get help, consult a qualified mental health professional. These providers understand mental illness and can recommend the best course of treatment for you. If you ever feel like hurting yourself or others, call your local crisis hotline or 911.

There is no medical test for diagnosing mental illness, but your doctor may use tests to rule out a medical reason for your symptoms. To make a diagnosis, your mental health professional will follow the guidelines outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association.

The DSM-5 lists criteria including feelings, symptoms and behaviors over a period of time that you must meet in order to be officially diagnosed with a mental illness. The mental health professional gleans this information through interviews with you about your symptom history.

Many people with mental illness achieve strength and recovery through participating in individual or group treatment. The specific treatment chosen for you is based on the type of mental illness you have and the severity of your symptoms.

The most common methods of treatment are medication and psychotherapy, or a combination of both. Other options that may be considered including hospitalization, day treatment, group therapy and specific therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy.

Medications don’t cure mental illness but they can control symptoms, and your doctor may use one or more types of medication to treat you. Common psychiatric medications for treating mental illness include antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, mood-stabilizing medications and anti-psychotic medications.

Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, aims to help you identify and change troubling emotions, thoughts and behaviors. It provides a supportive environment that allows you to talk openly about your feelings, as well as your experiences and relationships, which may be contributing factors to your condition.

In most cases, treatment is effective, but you’ve got to be compliant. If you’re prescribed medication, take it. If it causes intolerable side effects, tell your doctor. Maybe you can try another drug. Psychotherapy helps more than you might think, but you’ve got to participate. Treatment may take time to work, but if you comply, you’ll likely feel better and function fully.

Whether it’s in a comic book or a movie, most everyone has seen a superhero.

Superheroes are different from the rest of us. For example: The Flash is faster than the speed of light, Superman can fly, and Spiderman can shoot webs.

People look at superheroes and see greatness and perfection. In a sense, though, superheroes are just like everyone else. They suffer from some of the same problems many people do.

One such problem is mental illness.

Take Superman, for example. The Man of Steel had to leave his home and family in a different world and learn how to fit into our world. As a result, he suffers from a condition called “Part of Two Worlds Syndrome” and will never feel as if he is truly at home.

Another superhero is Captain America. The poster boy for America could also be a poster boy for depression. He is a soldier who was frozen in the ice after World War II. When he awoke, his life changed dramatically. His family and friends were gone. Dealing with all the death and lost time changes how you see life and makes it hard to move forward.

Captain America probably fears that if he makes new connections and friends, he will lose them too. Everything he faces today is a reminder of what should have been.

Jessica Jones faces many of those same challenges as well. Before she even met The Purple Man, Zebediah Kilgrave, she lost her family in a car crash. That didn’t ruin Jessica completely, but what was left of her life was taken away by the Purple Man.

After coming into contact with experimental chemicals and spending some time in a coma, Jessica emerged with superhuman strength, enough to lift a two-ton police car with little effort, fly and block mind control.

The Purple Man used Jessica’s power to hurt her friends. He would force her to cry and watch disturbing images. The Purple Man nearly killed her friends through her. He gives off pheromones that make people around him bend to his verbal commands.

Jessica, who was known at the time as Jewel to civilians, first meets Kilgrave in a restaurant. Using his own powers, he casually asks her to give up her secret identity, which she does without hesitation and uses her powers for schemes of evil. He induces her to attack the police force outside, which she does – flipping police cruisers with reckless abandon.

Jessica endured Kilgrave’s control for eight months. That’s eight solid months of mental and emotional torture. Afterward, she was little more than a skeleton with skin and hair. A rag doll. She had no control of her own life or mind. And while she eventually escaped from her tormenter, she will never be able to break free from him totally.

The events of what happened to her haunt her in her dreams and in reality. As a result, she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Even with her superpowers, she has scars that will never heal.

The same is true of supervillains. They are people too – without a tether to reality. But in all actuality, they are not at fault for their actions, for the most part.

With villains, it is harder to figure out if they are mentally unstable, have a disorder or are just plain out bad. The majority of villains have mental illnesses, which is the main cause of what they do.

Harley Quinn was an innocent victim. She was a therapist of the one and only Joker, which led to her downfall. The Joker abused Harley, putting her through physical, emotional, and psychological pain that caused her to become the villain we all know her to be. As a result, Harley suffers from battered person syndrome and Stockholm syndrome, conditions she cannot escape from.

Some supers aren’t villains or heroes but they have mental illnesses as well. Deadpool is one such super. He isn’t classified as a villain or a hero, but Deadpool is the perfect example of a comic book character with psychological disorders.

Deadpool was tortured, physically and emotionally, to the point of death to activate mutant genes. The psychological state of Deadpool reads like a list of psychological disorders.

He mostly suffers from schizophrenia but he also has psychopathic tendencies and has more emotional baggage than any other superhero or villain. With the mental dilemma he faces on a daily basis, he can’t grasp reality.

Thankfully, superheroes and villains are fictional characters who are who they are in part because of these illnesses. We, on the other hand, are real. We live in this world, right now and right here, and just as it is with superheroes and villains, mental illnesses are prevalent.

Approximately one in five adults in the U.S experience mental illness of some kind within a year. But help is available and there are many types of therapies and solutions, including:

• Psychotherapy – Psychotherapy is the therapeutic treatment of mental illness provided by a trained mental health professional.  Psychotherapy explores thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and seeks to improve an individual’s well-being.  Psychotherapy paired with medication is the most effective way to promote recovery.  Examples include: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Exposure Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, etc.
• Medication – Medication does not outright cure mental illness.  However, it may help with the management of symptoms.  Medication paired with psychotherapy is the most effective way to promote recovery.
• Support Group – A support group is a group meeting where members guide each other towards the shared goal of recovery.  Support groups are often comprised of nonprofessionals, but peers that have suffered from similar experiences.
• Self Help Plan – A self-help plan is a unique health plan where an individual addresses his or her condition by implementing strategies that promote wellness.  Self-help plans may involve addressing wellness, recovery, triggers or warning signs.
•  Peer Support – Peer Support refers to receiving help from individuals who have suffered from similar experiences.

Fans of superheroes may not want to know their dark secrets. But superheroes and villains, like many of the people they save, need help. In that way, they are like regular everyday civilians.

 

May is a great month. Spring’s in full bloom (which isn’t entirely GOOD news for those of us with allergies), and it’s time to celebrate our very special Moms. There’s another tradition we celebrate in May.

Having been deemed Mental Health Month it is the time we become more aware of mental health and mental illness. Mental illness is a big issue, and there’s still a lot of misinformation about it swirling in the air.

For starters, the American Psychiatric Association defines mental illness as “any health condition involving changes in thinking, emotion or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illness is associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities.” Still, the majority of people with mental illness continue to function in their daily lives despite their illness.

Almost everyone is touched in some way by mental illness. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that approximately one in five American adults, or 43.8 million people, experiences mental illness in a given year. One in 25 has a serious mental illness, one that limits major life activities. Serious mental illnesses include diseases like major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. I’m not done. One in 12 people has a substance abuse disorder.

Why are so many people affected by mental illness? The exact cause of mental illness is unknown, but researchers have uncovered a few factors that may contribute to its formation. One is genetics. Many mental illnesses run in families, suggesting people inherit at least a susceptibility to developing a particular illness.

An imbalance of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters have been linked to some types of mental illness as well. These chemicals help brain cells communicate with each other. If they can’t communicate properly because the chemicals are out of whack, clear messages can’t get through from the brain.

Another contributing factor is psychological trauma such as severe physical, emotional or sexual abuse endured as a child, witnessing a traumatic event or experiencing significant loss. Environmental factors can also contribute. These include the death of someone close to you, a divorce or a big change in your life, like a new job. These factors often foster substance abuse.

Whatever the cause, mental illness is just that, an ILLNESS, not a weakness in your character.

Mental illness runs the gamut, from mild depression to psychotic schizophrenia. Each illness has its own set of symptoms, but I’m giving you a few general symptoms so you know what to watch out for, in yourself and others. These are some of the more common symptoms of mental illness in adults. For more, go to the American Psychiatric Association website.

• Confused thinking
• Feeling sad or irritable
• Feeling extreme highs and lows
• Excessive fears or worries
• Social withdrawal
• Changes in eating and sleeping habits
• Intrusive thoughts
• Thoughts of suicide
• Seeing or hearing things that aren’t there

If you notice these symptoms and are willing to get help, consult a qualified psychiatrist or psychologist. They understand mental illness and can recommend the best course of treatment for you. If you ever feel like hurting yourself or others, call your local crisis hotline or 911.

The treatment chosen is based on the type of mental illness you have and the severity of your symptoms. The most common methods of treatment are medication and psychotherapy, or a combination of both. There are other options that may be considered including hospitalization, day treatment, group therapy and specific therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy.

In most cases, treatment is effective, but you’ve got to be compliant. If you’re prescribed medication, take it. If it causes intolerable side effects, tell your doctor. Maybe you can try another drug. Counseling helps more than you might think, but you’ve got to participate. Treatment may take time to work, but if you comply, you’ll likely feel better and function fully.