Why does it take about 11 years on average for people to seek treatment from the initial onset of symptoms of mental illness? One can come up with many reasons and excuses ranging from shame, stigma, lack of finances, lack of awareness, not knowing where to go, not trusting providers, fears, denial and the list goes on and on.
I want to pick a common theme and that is stigma. Stigma in short means disgrace and the question here is why is being ill considered a disgrace. The issue with this mindset is not just about the illness but the disgrace people seek to avoid. So, let’s understand illness from a wellness perspective.
Wellness means being in a state of good health. It doesn’t just fall on anyone but is a result of conscious effort to seek out choices and actions that augur well for one’s good. Some of us may claim we are well by divine providence and while we are grateful for that it still behooves us to take steps to align with such provision. You can’t make poor choices and expect grace to cover you.
Illness on the hand is being in a state of poor health. It can happen as a result of being exposed to debilitating factors in one’s internal or external environments. And so, mental illness is any condition that makes someone have thinking, feeling, mood or behaviour problems. This doesn’t mean that the person has become mysterious or irrecoverable. It just means they require help to think, feel and behave better again because of the alteration in their lives.
Most people don’t like to deal with what is uncomfortable and so they try to avoid or hide it in denial, shaming or blaming. Rather than hinder yourself or a loved one from recovery, know that help is available. This broken state should elicit acts of grace and not feelings of disgrace, empathy and not stigma. Therefore, it is not disgraceful to need and seek help, it is being graceful either to yourself or a loved one.
So I’ll tell you what else is graceful:
It is graceful to have hope.
It is graceful to know you can be better.
It is graceful to know there are professionals who can help.
It is graceful to prevent deterioration of conditions and symptoms and consequences.
It is graceful to know you can lead a normal life with the right help.
It is graceful to know you are not alone.
It is graceful to know you are a survivor.
Hope is here⚓
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