In My Backyard
About 40 million people here in the US suffer from some form of Anxiety Disorder.
About 1/3 of the overall cost of [mental] health care goes for treating Anxiety, that's a bill of about 42 billion dollars of the overall annual cost of 148 billion per year.
(To find out more visit: (http://www.adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics)
Suicide accounts for about 29 million deaths here in the US each year with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Depression being the leading causes.
(To find out more visit: http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/consequences/suicide.html)
I'm not surprised at how high the numbers are of Americans suffering from some form of Mental Illness or stress related disorder, because we live unnatural lives! That's not to say that all mental illness is caused by our failure as a species. There are neurological and chemical reasons, problems during pregnancy and other health and environmental causes.
We are saturated in expectations that are destined to fail from the get go!
There was a time in human history when all you needed to do was be born, learn the basics of survival, find a mate, have more babies etc...
We are born to debt. Our bodies are usually not born sick but we're conditioned to go a Doctor even when we have no reason and they call it ' Preventative Medicine', I call it a physician's idea of job security, but this also causes people to become fearful and preoccupied with physical health concerns that are just not there and this in turn can create or aggravate mental health problems and yet no one goes to a counselor once a year for a routine check up.
So many of us isolate ourselves because we've had our hearts broken too many times or we suffer from self loathing or simply don't feel we're worthy of the love of another person. I live in an apartment where our doors open out into a courtyard of grass and trees. It is a small quaint place where literally all of us are single. We live alone with our pets, we go to work, then come home and do it again the next day. We are a circle of neighbors.
I have experienced people who say they don't date or become involved because they can't afford it!
Two may not be able to live as cheaply as one, but it can sure ease the burden and love can change the course of a person's life.
We are exposed to streaming Global chaos that is out of our individual control.
We are hardwired with compassion, so what then can we do when we see unrest, global starvation, deadly sickness, social outcry and a collapsing economical and agricultural base? Nothing, absolutely nothing. We are exposed to all of this and we feel anger, pain, fear and sadness. We are helpless.
Feelings turned inward become time bombs with names like PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, and thoughts of suicide.
There is no clear answer about how to stop Mental Illness and there is really no way of knowing who is more likely to become a sufferer. Mental Illness does not discriminate. It is color blind and doesn't care how much money you have or how many degrees on your wall.
Suffers need someone to care, but if you have concern for anyone you think may be in mental or emotional distress there are things you can do:
Call 911 and request an Officer do a welfare check
Call a Crisis Hotline
You can lend an ear and just listen
You could smile and say hello
You could invite them in for coffee
You could suggest resources you may know about
If you know someone who is suppose to be on medication and they don't appear to be taking it then report it, there may not be anything a doctor or police officer can do but at least it's better than doing nothing.
I know Mental Illness is a complicated and sinister double edged sword, but even if I fail at any of the above I know I tried. I will not walk by them and pretend they don't exist. Sufferers need people to care. We can't fix the world by ourselves, but we can help one person at a time and that snowballs into a global society that has a voice in how we tackle the bigger problems.
I write this entry for my neighbors, friends and co workers who suffer, for P. who is suffering from Depression and a fear of leaving her home, for M. who has the early signs of Alzheimer's, K. who is high functioning Autistic, S. who is depressed and drinking because he's in debt and his young dog died suddenly and without warning, to R. who is grieving with gut wrenching pain the loss of his little dog and the woman whose name I don't know because she is afraid to talk to any of us and won't even say hello.
To S. who can only make it to work two or three days a week because she can't cope with her job, to B. who has been battling depression and sleep disorder for so many years, to M.J. who is a shut in and hoarder.
I may not have flowers growing in my backyard, but I do my best to sow the seeds of friendship and connectedness among people. The next time you're out pulling weeds smile and say hello to everyone you see because change begins with the simplest acts of kindness.
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