Advocacy: Striving for Wholeness after Mental Health Awareness Month

May marked the end of another Mental Health Awareness Month. From the Newtown, Conn. tragedy in December 2012, to the Oscar-winning movie Silver Linings Playbook and all the way through the DSM-5 controversy this spring, mental illness has certainly been getting plenty of attention in the news.   Spanning the horrific to the enlightening, from the uplifting to the nitty-gritty, these three cultural talking points alone have been reshaping America’s ongoing thinking about a frequently overlooked aspect of our general health. Considered in itself (or in its partial absence, illness), mental health shapes the rest of our health. If one is off-balance emotionally — even temporarily — physical health can and usually does suffer. A wise woman-friend once pointed out to me that disease stems from just that — “dis-ease,” essentially, in one’s way of being in the world. Thus impairment to behavioral ways of coping with stress or grief is intrinsically connected to bodily suffering. That is why mental illness — and on the further end of the continuum, mental health and wellness — must be identified, understood together, and appropriately dealt with (not demonized).  Mental illness affects one-quarter of the population at any given time, according to statistics from the National Institute of Mental Health and multiple other sources. Two decades ago, I worked as a vocational coordinator at a psychosocial rehab agency in Pittsburgh.  We...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Tags: Brain and Behavior Disorders General Mental Health and Wellness Policy and Advocacy Psychology Research Treatment advocacy. disease Borderline Personality Disorder Continuum Coping With Stress Disability Concerns Dsm Dsm 5 Em Source Type: blogs