NOT… “just another walk”

As most of you know, we just had a very successful NAMIWalks in Tucson on March 27th. NAMIWalks Southern Arizona is the single biggest fundraising, awareness building event in this area promoting advocacy, support and education for people with mental illness and their families. A NAMI associate and friend of mine manages the Walk in San Diego that is scheduled for this weekend and was able to assist in coordinating a simultaneous walk in Iraq. Please read the following article from the NAMI website:

Army Troops in Iraq to Hold 5K Run to Promote PTSD Awareness and Ending Stigma of Mental Illness

April 14, 2010

Arlington, Va. — An Army platoon in Iraq will run five kilometers (5K) in full body armor on April 17 to raise awareness about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the need to end stigma surrounding mental illness.

Forward Operating Base Echo in ad-Diwaniyah, Iraq will hold the event at the same time the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) affiliate in San Diego holds a NAMIWalk at a more leisurely pace.

NAMI San Diego will move out Saturday at 8:00 a.m. (PT) while 3rd Platoon, Baker Company of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team and others begin the 5K run at 19:00 hours (Iraq time).

“This is an incredible event,” said NAMI National Executive Director Mike Fitzpatrick. “NAMI is honored that Army soldiers in a war zone have synchronized their commitment to public education with our San Diego affiliate.”

“NAMIWalks across the country are about hope, recovery and community. They are fun events, but they support serious work.”

“As the U.S. Army has taught me, not all wounds are visible,” said Army specialist John Bell, who is organizing the Iraq event.

“As tough as a U.S. service member may be, many still suffer the effects of having endured life in a combat zone. The most prominent effect is PTSD. Not every combat-deployed soldier has been in a firefight, or had their vehicle struck by an IED, or even lost a friend by an enemy engagement. But the trauma they endure is nonetheless significant to them.”

* One in six veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan is affected by PTSD, depression or anxiety. Only about half seek treatment.

* One study has reported that 25 percent of Iraq veterans seen at veterans’ hospitals receive mental health diagnoses.

* Approximately 40 percent of homeless veterans have some form of mental illness.

For two years, NAMI San Diego development and events manager, Annie Dunlop told Bell, a friend, about NAMIWalks. Deployed in Iraq, he was unable to participate. This year he didn’t want to miss out. The 5K will honor NAMI San Diego’s work and NAMI efforts to help veterans nationwide through its on-line Veterans Resource Center and other programs.

Discrimination against people with mental illness is all too prevalent, but what does someone do when someone in your family is being stigmatized by their own family members? 

A member of the family, we’ll call him the Father, was diagnosed with schizophrenia approximately fifteen years ago, but it wasn’t until this week that his sister was given that information.  They live across the country from each other and and don’t see each other often, but the sister has always know that her brother was “quirky.”  She knew he was brilliant and that he had scored very high on a IQ test while in high school and always considered him a genius.  Over the last several years she often wondered if her brother had a mental illness diagnosis, but no one else in the family thought it possible.  That is, no one besides her sister-in-law who finally shared the information after living with him for over twenty years and raising a family. 

The sister, who believes that mental illness should not be kept in the closet and needs to be spoken about feels frustrated and saddened by her brother’s family’s inability to share openly an illness that needs to be discussed.  It is the first step in reducing stigma.

All that can be done  is to encourage the family to be open.  This is an issue that they must come to grips with on their own, but here are some suggestions (some from the www.nami.org website) to anyone interested in reducing mental illness stigma. 

Use of Language is Most Important

•  Protest usage of single words like “crazy” “psycho” “wacko” or “loony” unless they refer directly to individuals struggling with mental illnesses or to the illness itself.
•  ”Schizophrenic” to describe a split decision made by Congress or any organization has become part of our cultural language. However, its misuse is being heard and corrected by many in the public arena.
•  Protest calling a person a “schizophrenic”: NAMI policy calls for PEOPLE FIRST: people, persons, individuals with a mental illness, schizophrenia, bipolar, clinical depression, OCD, panic disorder.

Above all else, get educated and know that mental illness, like any other illness is a biological disorder;  it can be successfully treated and recovery is more than possible, it’s probable.  Ignorance has caused people to abandon their family members and encouraged the person with the diagnosis to isolate themselves. 

Just like a person living with cancer or diabetes, a person with mental illness needs support and acceptance from their family and friends. 

There is a genetic predisposition, so everyone in the family needs to know what the symptoms and “red flags” are.  Sometimes is takes years, even decades before a person is diagnosed.  It is proven than the earlier a person receives treatment, the better the outcome.

Encourage our legislators to treat mental illnesses with parity so that insurance coverage is equal for mental illnesses with physical illnesses.

Bottom line is we need to accept people for who they are, with or without any illness and be there to support and encourage them as equal human beings.

It’s already starting…..including right here on the Tucson Citizen site……..the man, Major Nadil Malik Hasan was “crazy.”  If you have read any of my blogs before, you know how important it is to me to try and create a world where people living with mental illnesses do not feel stigmatized and one of the first steps is to stop using horribly discrimating terms like “crazy” or “crazed.”  Yes, I agree that someone who goes on a rampage killing 12 people and wounding at least 31 others is not of sound mind, but why don’t we take a look at why this happened? 

If you believe, as I do, that mental illnesses are illness just like any other, than why was this man, who supposedly treated other people with brain disorders, not receiving treatment himself?  Did  anyone not notice how he was struggling?  According to the “God Blogging” post on this site, NPR interviewed others at Walter Reed who said he was. 

Which brings us back to the same problem, the same issues that continue to plague people with mental illness and their families.  Because of the stigma, because of the inattention by our health care system that doesn’t think the mind is part of one’s physical health, because of an overburdened mental healthcare system, because people suffering from a mental illness can feel isoloated and abandoned by their support structure, people with diagnosable brain disorders are falling through the cracks.  One again, as President Obama called this tragedy, “a horrific” catastrophe has occured in this country.

Who knows what was going on in Hasan’s head……Certainly listening to war stories from our returning Veterans experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was not an easy thing to do, but why is it that no one saw the signs, especially when he was set to deploy at the end of the month? Maybe Major Hasan will be able to shed some light on our questions.