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Mental Illness Awareness Week - Part I

© Amy Hillgren Peterson

Mental Illness Awareness Week is the first week in October. According to the NAMI website, great strides have been made in effective treatment and erasing the stigma. However, more work needs to be done.

I wanted to bring you the best websites on Mental Illness Awareness Week on the Web. My search on the web for articles relating specifically to events marking Mental Illness Awareness Week was discouraging. Sure, many mental health center websites around the country posted their schedule of events, their press releases, their public service announcements. Others posted a single sentence in their online newsletters.

The goal of community mental health centers should be to treat people with mental illness. Period. I don't advocate them turning into public relations organizations. On the other hand, the one in my community has a public relations director on staff. When I attempted to reach her by telephone to talk to her about Mental Illness Awareness Week, she was unavailable this entire week.

I surveyed my friends and family, most of whom have become more educated about mental illness since I disclosed mine to them. None of them knew Mental Illness Awareness Week was the first week in October, and none of them had heard of Mental Illness Awareness Week.

I am not dumping on the community based efforts. Hold high your candle at the local vigil. Distribute pamphlets. Pray that someone's life is saved at the Depression Screening. Maybe someone who previously thought mental illness was a character flaw will read a pamplet and finally Get It. Maybe someone who has experienced frightening thoughts and mood swings will find treatment and help. Maybe someone feeling suicidal will see a Public Service Announcement and reach for the phone. Maybe.

I am a more demanding consumer, though. I want to see someone on the web bringing real stories of people with mental illness who struggle each day, or who have triumphed over their symptoms, at least for now. I want to see someone on the web who captures the real experience of mental illness, and the real capabilities people with mental illness have, in spite of what the battles they fight. I want to find someone on the web who stands up to the damaging rhetorists who say mental illness does not exist, depression is a lack of coping skills, schizophrenia is a voluntary escape from reality.

Cancer survivors have this, so do people who live with diabetes, muscular dystrophy and ALS. Where are the celebrities who struggle with depression and bipolar disorder. They abound on lists, on radio interviews, on talk shows. But their space is empty at the podiums of rallies, at the front of the candlelight vigils, and at the depression screenings.

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