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Mental Health Awareness Month matters because there are a good number of Colorado County citizens who are living miserable lives with Depression, Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Suicidal Thoughts, Phobias, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Substance Addictions, Eating Disorders, lack of hope, lack of joy, medications that aren’t working and lack of money or transportation in order to receive treatment. And then there’s their families who don’t understand and/or totally worn out by years of dealing with a loved one whose life has so many ups and downs everyone feels like they are living in a bad soap opera.
Chronic mental illness is a drain on friends, family and even providers; and the individual experiencing these chronic disorders can get to a point where they are ready to give up! No one seems to understand they are trying to get better and they don’t know why they feel the way they feel or why they do the things they do.
That’s because mental disorders are brain disorders and they are complicated!
It’s not about being a weak person or an unworthy person or just trying to get attention or being lazy. Oh no! There is something going on in the brain and the answers are not simple. Everybody wants to know why, what has caused the mental illness. The answer is also complex and can have many factors involved!
We know that there are many genetic, inherited propensities and diseases that can be behind a variety of health – physical and mental – diagnoses. We also come into this world with a predisposition to certain disease processes. We do know that lifestyle, life events and environment can disrupt our biology and cause huge issues: exposure to toxins, brain injuries, lack of care and nurturing as a child, physical, emotional and sexual abuse as a child, alcohol and drug abuse; being raped or assaulted, any type of mental/emotional trauma that is not treated and resolved, such as serving in a war zone in the military, serving as a first responder to horrible fires, automobile accidents and other disasters.
And people can’t just ‘get over it’ The Wellness Council of Greater Colorado Valley is focusing on May which is Mental Health Month to help bring all these facts to light. What we need as a society is for people to understand and show compassion for individuals with mental health disorders; the same kind of compassion you give to someone with cancer who is going through difficult treatment with chemo and radiation. We need local citizens to work with the Council to help us bring more mental health services to Colorado County. We need a Psychiatrist for medication management; an LCSW – a Clinical Social Worker -- to provide psychotherapy and counseling; and we need a Psychologist to do psychological testing and brain mapping, etc. With these behavioral health professionals locally, they could then work together along with the Family Physicians and Nurse Practitioners so the ‘whole person’ is the focus, and wellness and well-being can become a reality.
Never ever believe that a loved one who is suffering a mental disorder, or even diagnosed with several disorders, is ‘just the way they are going to be’. With 40 years of clinical practice, including working several years in a psychiatric hospital, I can assure you there is hope and there are treatments that work. But few are available in Colorado County, and to get to Houston and to the right providers can be difficult because of the cost and transportation challenges. But there are answers and solutions.
That’s what The Wellness Council is working towards, but it’s a slow process. With a county population of only 21,000 +/-, a housing shortage at all but the highest income levels, significant transportation issues for not just low income but middle-income citizens as well, and lack of free-flowing funds, we have a real challenge! But not an impossible one!
So, we start at the foundation of it all: increase awareness through The Council’s monthly Awareness Campaigns and offer educational presentations whenever and wherever we are invited to do so. There are multiple members of The Council who are willing to speak to your group, talk about our current projects, goals that have been accomplished and future plans. And we have clinicians who are members, along with our Mental Health Deputy, that can speak on mental health disorders, treatment and services available. For a presentation call 281-8440212 and for more information on The Wellness Council including access to our Local Resource Directory, go to www.WellnessGCV. com.
Mazie Leftwich, PsyD, is LCSW Emeritus President, The Wellness Council.
