Be Fair

If I learned anything from teaching first graders, it is to pay attention to your mistakes, learn from them, and make changes. As you read this, I encourage you to do just that, listen, learn, and make changes.

Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect mood, thinking and behavior. These may include, but are not limited to: Alzheimer’s, dementia, anxiety disorders, mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders such as psychosis, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia, impulse control and addition disorders, personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dissociative disorders, and tic disorders.

People of all ages are diagnosed with a mental illness every day. And most choose to keep it to themselves. This of course, is not the best thing to do, but it still happens. Why do people keep their mental illness a secret? Here are a few reasons why many choose not to share:

• They feel ashamed of their condition and that they cannot control it, because we as a society have told them that they should be able to.

• They fear being viewed as weak and lazy, because we as a society continue to judge people for this.

• They fear rumors and gossip, because we as a society generally don’t really understand mental illness but talk about it like we do.

• They fear humiliation of themselves and/or dishonor on their families, because we as a society tend to stereotype people with mental conditions.

• They fear sharing will impact their social life and/or their job/ career, because we as a society often treat people differently when we discover differences.

When we hear that someone has cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, the automatic reaction is to express sympathy and help that person and their family. But when we see or hear about someone struggling with mental illness, suddenly we don’t know what to say or do?

We must be curious. We must be open. We must be proactive.

We must grow our understanding, change our reactions, and accept that mental illness is no different than any other physical disease and it deserves the same sympathy, encouragement, and awareness. They are all medical conditions that no one wished for.

Now here comes the challenging part and how we can help. The answer is: be FAIR. Mental illness deserves the same reaction, encouragement, sympathy, and response as any other physical illness with no judgment at all.

• Ask someone how they are doing.

• Bring them a casserole, a takeout meal, a soda, a coffee, a candy bar.

• Give them a hug.

• Smile at them.

• Don’t talk about what you don’t understand or have not experienced.

• Admit that you don’t really understand (or maybe you do), but tell them that you care.

• Try to imagine their experience with empathy.

• Give them hope.

• Love them.

• Pray for them and their loved ones.

Our job is easy compared to the one suffering from these terrible invisible diseases.

For more information on the Red Door visit: www.faycofoundation.com or call (979) 561-6791.