Reflections on Mental Illness

Mental illnesses are treated with both medication and therapy. Sometimes you can treat the illness with just one of the two but it is usually best to treat it with both. When the illness gets very severe doctors may resort to using electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Mental illness can affect anyone. It doesn't matter what race, age, religion or income you are in. My doctor always tells me that it isn't a sign of a personal weakness. It simply is a illness like any other.

Here are a few facts about mental illness:

• Mental illnesses are biologically based brain disorders. They cannot be overcome through will power.
• Again, mental illnesses fall along a line of severity.
• Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability.
• Mental illnesses strike people in the prime of their life, usually during their young adult years.
• Treatments for mental illness are highly effective, with 70-90% of people having a significant reduction in symptoms.
• Early detection is vital.

Some people go for years untreated with a mental illness. Once they finally receive help, there is so much relief on their part. They usually feel a weight has been lifted off of them. They also may feel like they have been living under a dark cloud all of their lives.

I remember earlier in my life, when I was just a pre-teen, a friend of my mom's told her that God was going to do great things in my life. I have thought about what she said my entire life, always wondering what I would do. In recent years when I was finally diagnosed with major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, I came to realize that this was how God was going to use me. I never thought that my experiences with mental illness would lead me into writing and sharing about it with the entire world. I guess I have always hoped that I would but never dreamed it was possible.

Today, for the first time in my life I feel free. I have accepted the fact that I will live with mental illness for the rest of my life. I also realize that it is not my fault. I hope this article will be the beginning of many articles to come on mental illnesses. Please tune in for more.

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