Who Are The Mentally ill?

Who Are The Mentally ill?

By Tom Reilly

Ah, shucks, you figured it out. How can I answer the question when you already know the answer? Well, maybe I can switch and take a different direction. It saves time since you know who’s who.

People leading ordinary lives get sick. We get measles, colds, sinus infections, allergies, depression, malaria, pneumonia, schizophrenia, and all sorts of attacks on our bodies. Diseases of the brain are more difficult for us to deal with because we don’t know how to approach them.

If you have arthritis, we can sympathize and support you by taking you to the doctor, chatting, shopping, and such. If you have a bipolar disorder, we are at first confused because we don’t quite know what that means. Then we are afraid to intrude. Finally, we go about our lives and let you handle the problem.

There is also lack of insight and fearful traditions:

“Is it catching?”

“Has God cursed them?”

“Is it just a lack of character?”

“Will I be mocked if I try to be nice to you?”

Ordinary people, just like you and I, do become ill and get sick—get brain “sicknesses.” Does that change who we are? The obvious answer is no. We are the same, but we are ill. We need support, and we need the patience and caring of our families, friends, and community.

When you have a case of the flu, don’t you sometimes get moody, self-centered, even grumpy? Does that make you a bad person?

Illnesses that affect the brain in dramatic fashion have been shown to be organic—not personality deficiencies. Schizophrenia has its source in the first trimester of pregnancy, often before a mother knows she’s pregnant. Yep, that far back. The brain is damaged, and the result is eventually diagnosed as a thought disorder. This damage shows up in a radical way usually in late teens to mid-twenties. At that point, the life which the person built is destroyed. Terrible frustration and despair are common.

Medications which help individuals get control of their thoughts have become available over the past ten years, but by itself medication is less effective if family and community is lacking. Our society does not welcome mentally ill individuals. We are afraid of them. Many of the homeless men and women of the streets are victims of mental illness and are there because they do not get support—and because they know that they are outcasts from normal society.

Do you want easy solutions? Sorry, there are none.

We can begin by wrestling with our own prejudices and fears.

We can deal with only our own. Other folks have to deal with theirs.

If you want to move from where you are to a better understanding,

let’s put our heads together and look for a first step.

Originally written under the pen name “Tom Piperson” and published in a church newsletter edited by the author. Reprinted here with permission from the family of Tom Reilly.