Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Mental Illness - Bridging the Gap


Following on the heels of an article written by Brandon Allwood, a Jamaican student at York University in Toronto, I feel that it has become increasingly necessary to join in the fight to break the stigma attached to an issue affecting numerous people in the world today: Mental Illness.



Mental illness is any disease or condition that 
influences the way a person thinks, feels, behaves, 
and/or relates to others and to his or her 
surroundings. Although the symptoms of 
mental illness can range from mild to 
severe and are different depending on 
the type of mental illness, a person 
with an untreated mental illness 
often is unable to cope with life's 
daily routines and demands. (Source: http://www.medicinenet.com/mental_illness/article.htm)


It is something that must be brought into the light and seen for what it truly is - a legitimate medical condition. Mental illness should not be seen as something to get over, or something to be looked at with disgust and taken lightly. One does not look at someone with a seizure and tell them to walk it off. Would you dare tell a diabetic they don’t need their insulin today? So then why is it, that as a people we treat someone with a mental health disease differently?

The typical Jamaican view on mental illness forms a skewed picture with two extremes. On one end of the spectrum, there is the drug abuser in the streets begging for spare change and arguing with himself while possibly walking about aimlessly in the nude. The other extreme is the so called “perfect uptown person”, who is said to have no real problems. Mental illness knows no social class and may very well affect any person reading this article.

Let us first clarify that substance induced psychosis is real. For some people, it takes one spliff to unleash the floodgates of Schizophrenia. Similarly, it can take one negative experience to push a person beyond the brink into depression. These people are suffering and should be treated no different. Chemical imbalances in the brain fuel a physical and emotional change that needs help and intervention. It goes well beyond “getting over it”, or just being strong and moving along with your life. For people affected by mental illness, the experiences that they have are very real. For those suffering from depression, they are in physical pain and the voice they hear inside their heads speaking to them is real. So why then do we still treat mental health and illness as something trivial? It is far too easy for those unaffected - whether it be primary or second hand - to be obtuse.

Some sources indicate that 1 in 4 persons suffers from depression. Clinical depression is in no way the same as a mood of feeling down. It oftentimes involves feelings of worthlessness and guilt. For the affected person, it is a weight to endure and sadly sometimes this issue often leads to suicidal thoughts and tendencies.

Fortunately, there is hope and things can be better. The first step however needs to be a change in the collective consciousness of the people as a whole. We need to realise that mental health issues have the ability to affect every and anyone. It strikes just the same as any other physical disease - across all social classes and all ethnicities.,all communities and all religions. Don’t turn a blind eye. Anyone can be affected.


- Written by Dr. Jordan B. Eaton BSc MB, BS

Jordan Eaton is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. He is a trained Medical Doctor and real life mental health patient. His condition and the condition of those like him work together to bring forth a wider understanding of this global problem. He is currently completing his internship and hopes to specialize in Psychiatry in the future.

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