Mental Illness Awareness Week: Be Empowered

NVLife Magazine are all about having that e-NV-iable LIFE.  About inspiring people to live life actively, positively and being empowered.  Now that is a good soulful motto as we recognize Mental Illness Awareness Week.

Living a good ‘mentally healthy’ life is about living positively; it is all about having a sound mind.   NVLife Magazine support organizations in the UK such as Depression Alliance and Time To Change, two incredibly excellent organizations that have big time awareness campaigns in the fight against stigma and issues regarding mental illness/depression.  Yes, you can see we have been following them over the last couple of months, and yes, we like! 

In one of their posts about being bold and fearless, they stated that mental illness was not a black or white issue.  Many times we don’t stop to think about this, especially when mental illness does not affect us directly.   But the truth is mental illness is non-discriminatory.  Mental illness affects the human race.  Full stop.

NVLIfe Magazine had a lot to say about depression recently not mincing their words concerning the taboo and stigma that the package of the disease comes with.

Because of this awful perception that mental illness is a thing to be feared, many will bottle up their feelings of hopelessness until it is far too late. Surveying the reaction of Robin Williams’ death from suicide, it is apparent that a lot of people were shocked (as well as saddened) to hear that the reason this man lost his life was because of an illness called Depression. Some may ask, “how can such a happy charismatic character like Robin Williams have been mentally ill?”

Defying Mental Illness (DMI) agrees.  The suicidal death of Robin Williams (RIP), for example, did raise a few high eyebrows.  I believe it was not so much as the fact that he was a world celebrity, but more of the fact that  his comical character did not do him any favors, at least in easing the pressures he must have felt.  It is so easy to assume that just because one can make others laugh that he was happy himself.

Perhaps he (like many others) felt that he had to continuously wear a mask and hide. As an actor, having a near perfect image is everything. So how could one reveal if they were struggling with an illness that attempts to erode the mind and affects the way one behaves?

True!  I can imagine him coming home after making everyone laugh, not to his swimming pool but perhaps instead to a pool of tears.  The pressures of maintaining his happy character was just an overcoat.  Once the coat came off, the chill of depression was very icy!

It is a pity that it has taken the death of a man for many of us to wake up and start addressing this overlooked issue. Nevertheless, let us learn from the death of Robin Williams and the suicides of others before him so that we can start to make changes to the way we (as a society) think. By changing the way we think, i.e. accepting that mentally ill people deserve the same treatment, care and respect that any other ill person do, we can start to end the STIGMA.

It starts with talking. It starts with listening. It starts with compassion.

Could not have summed that up better!

So over to you.  What can we start doing today as we mark the start of Mental Illness Awareness Week?…Let’s get talking and listening.
Please post your compassionate comments or compassionately share this post.

(Mental Illness Awareness week is from Sunday October 5 to Saturday October 11 2014.
NVLIfe Magazine is standing up with Depression Alliance in the fight against depression by raising worthy donations to this cause.  You can also support them here).

Thank you!

About The Author

Zoe

Zoe met Eze (Chuck) in the 14th year of what turned out to be an 18 year ‘journey’ with mental illness. They got married less than a year of meeting with Zoe fully knowing Chuck had a diagnosis of mental illness. In the 18th year, Chuck defied the odds of mental illness. A consultant psychiatrist signed him off the mental health system with a bill of NO MENTAL ILLNESS. The consultant was so amazed by Chuck’s astonishing recovery that he even questioned how Chuck was diagnosed with mental illness all those years before, in the first place! Today Chuck is free from medication, its dependency and hospitalizations. Zoe’s award nominated book, DEFYING THE ODDS, chronicles the highs and ‘lows’ of this journey. Zoe, often writing from the standpoint of a caregiver, clearly understands that mental illness does not only affect an individual challenged with the disease, but also families, marriages and society as a whole.

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