COVID-19 has sent us a clear message. Our mental wellness is in jeopardy. Couple that with the understanding that physical health and mental health are inextricably intertwined, and we have a recipe for future health care success.
Treat the mind and the body will improve. Treat the body without treating the mind and treatment will be less successful. It’s time to come out from behind the looking glass and peer into our minds with eager curiosity.
What do the coronavirus and mental ill health have in common? For starters, nearly everyone is susceptible. One of every two people will experience a mental health issue in their lifetimes. One of five will experience a mental illness this year. Look around you. Someone in your family is at risk. Or someone with whom you work. Or a friend. Or, sorry to say, you.
We’re all in this together. If we want to leave mental ill health behind, we’ll have to begin speaking about mental wellness as crucial to our overall health.
It took a global public communications effort to convey the ill effects of COVID-19 and encourage people to wear masks and get vaccinated. Many people have now felt the tug of isolation-related depression. As unfortunate as this may be, it opens the door to an understanding that our mental wellness is serious business. Even as we’re on the cusp of leaving our masks behind, we still have a long way to go to eliminate the social bias against mental ill health.
The economic benefits of mental well-being are considerable.
Untreated mental illness costs the U.S. up to $300 billion annually in lost productivity. The Lancet Global Health journal suggests that for every $1 spent on scaled-up treatment for depression and anxiety, there is a $4 return in better health and productivity. That’s a 400% return on investment!
During the pandemic, leaders of industry and governments learned that being apart from their workplaces brought sadness, depression and loneliness. Many suffered directly from the coronavirus. Others faced stark days questioning their self-worth or feared the unknown for the first time. Even the strongest felt the dark pull downward of social, economic and psychological inversion.
Mental wellness sits at the intersection of cultural beliefs, neurobiology and behavioral health. Illnesses like anxiety disorder, depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, eating disorders and substance misuse are among the most private and hidden of disorders. This is because the general perception is one of impairment such that the owner of the disorder is seen as a social pariah. The culprit here is a fear of self-exposure.
Fear. That’s more common ground shared by COVID-19 and mental ill health. Until we overcome our fear, its prejudicial impact will remain. COVID-19’s public information campaign normalized a new disease in everyday conversation. It became exciting to see who would develop a vaccine. And when people were vaccinated, they celebrated.
What if we’d been afraid to talk about COVID-19? We’d be huddled masses, succumbing to an unseen foe like the bubonic plague — the Black Death — back in the 14th century. Then, people simply died.
Today, we know we can take preventive measures. Our scientific and medical research professionals discover cures every day. Gone are superstitious beliefs of a plague being transmitted through the dying looks of infected people.
Today, we hold out hope for cancer’s cure. The days of fearing to tell people you or a loved one had cancer, along with its associated shame? Thankfully, those day are behind us. Walks, runs, bike rides and more to help fund cancer research are commonplace. People participate with vigor. Cancer survivors are held in high regard for their strength and perseverance.
Now, it’s time to address mental ill health and celebrate its cure. The stigma that exists is of our own creation. It is a stigma of the mind as being ill versus the lack of stigma when the body is ill. Why must the mind be such an anomaly? It is part of us, we are part of it. The mind and the body are interconnected so closely as to be almost one. We inhabit both. Physical health is needed for mental health. Mental health is needed for physical health. The way to make progress is to begin talking openly about mental ill health.
Can you imagine if every major news outlet reported statistics about daily suicide rates, just like coronavirus infection and death counts? And that we celebrated as suicide numbers dwindled? Or if statistics about people completing treatment for depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders or substance misuse were in the daily news cycle? It would become a race to find new cures. Talking about overcoming our own mental health issues would bring great pride and joy.
The next health care frontier is of the mind. It remains the great unknown, deeper than the outer reaches of galaxies, but close to home because we each own it. If we let the unknown continue to lurk in the shadows it will remain undiscovered and undiscoverable, untreated and untreatable.
Until we address our mental wellness openly and without reservation, people who need help will continue to feel discrimination’s hurtful hand. Ashamed, they’ll forgo seeking help before a crisis moment occurs.
Our words of encouragement that recognize and normalize mental ill health will reverse this trend and save lives. Let’s reach for the day when talking about a therapist will be as commonplace as recommending a cardiologist, oncologist or orthopedist.
Here’s a suggestion: Be courageous. When you next speak with a friend or relative, tell them how you really feel. Are you happy, sad, stressed, lonely, afraid, depressed, anxious, excited, worried, relaxed, nervous, fulfilled, ashamed, fragile, hopeful, proud? Tell them why. Then ask how they feel. Let’s see what you get.
Dave Celone, of Sharon, is director of development and community relations for West Central Behavioral Health, which has offices in clinics in Claremont, Lebanon and Newport, N.H. West Central’s 24/7 emergency services number is 1-800-564-2578. The website is www.wcbh.org.