Mental Health Awareness Month - 2016

May is designated as, “Mental Health Awareness Month”. This is the month that we all need to work at taking away the stigma that is attached to persons that suffer from a mental illness.

When we learn about a person that has a mental illness, we sometimes use cruel words to describe the condition. “Crazy”, “Loco”, “Nuts” “Bonkers”and “Psycho” are just a few of the words that come to mind that people use freely in everyday conversation to describe a person with a mental illness. Or, people will make assumptions that a person with a mental illness is dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. These types of behaviors serve to isolate people that are already struggling with the symptoms of a disorder that they have no control over. These types of behaviors also make it less likely that the person that is suffering the symptoms of a mental illness will get treatment.

I hope that this month, and every day thereafter, we all can do our part to be more sensitive to how we speak and how we treat our fellow brothers and sisters that want to live their lives as fully as we all do and with dignity.