The importance of “stomping out the stigma”

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the U.S. Congress established the first week of October as Mental Illness Awareness Week in1990 to recognize NAMI's efforts to raise mental illness awareness. Since then, mental health advocates across the United States have joined together to raise awareness and sponsor events during the first full week in October.

Muskingum University held its own Mental Health Awareness Day, sponsored by the MU Counseling Services and PSI CHI, on Oct. 5. Sessions throughout the day included a stomping out stigma session with cookies on the quad, depression and anxiety screenings, and a suicide talk.

For me, just the entire idea of a Mental Health Awareness Day is amazing.

Think back your parents and grandparents time and those before them. Such a day would have been unheard of and completely frowned upon. People who admitted to having a mental illness were locked away or kept from the public in not so many years past.

Now we are celebrating those who are brave enough to acknowledge that they have a mental illness and take steps to overcome that with modern medicines and great counselors.

Even more important, we are educating people on mental illness and encouraging them to acknowledge it as a part of life and move on, whether it affects them or not.

We aren't sweeping it under the rug, we aren't shutting away perfectly functional people, society is more understanding and focused on helping them heal and breaking down barriers between them and those who have no mental illness.

Yes, some mental illnesses are more severe than others, but that is the importance of education. No one person experiences a mental illness in the same way. Yes, there are symptoms and certain indicators that many people may experience together, but every one person is different and individual.

I think that a crucial part in stomping out the stigma of mental illnesses is knowing that what, medically, can be termed a mental illness is not something that people can overcome or control.

A lot of times we expect those around us to act "normal" and be the type of person that makes us feel more comfortable. But, in reality, people with mental illnesses suffer from a medical disorder much the same as any other.

It can be diagnosed, in most cases it can be treated, there is a spectrum of severity, and the National Institute of Mental Health found that one in four adults in America will experience some type of mental illness in a given year.

The key to helping those with mental illnesses is taking away the stigma of acknowledging such a disorder. Those who are afraid of being judged or criticized or ostracized for their illness are less likely to seek the help that they need and will be less likely to let others who could help them know about their disorder.

The fact that Muskingum is holding a public day focusing on mental health awareness is a huge step in making students more comfortable with confronting mental illnesses and being open to the idea of treatment.

Just think, if one in four adults has a mental illness of any severity there are hundreds of students at Muskingum that potentially have a mental illness. It's our job, as compassionate people and students to help ourselves and those around us simply by educating ourselves and being aware of the resources available to us.