NO LAUGHING MATTER

Mental illness is a very serious illness, and if untreated, it can lead to death. It's not a game or a joke. It cannot be fixed by thinking happy thoughts or watching a funny movie. It cannot be cured, but recovery is possible only with intense therapy and medication. People often make jokes about mental illness and even television shows turn a serious illness into something to laugh at. The truth is it's no laughing matter.

When I returned to work after being hospitalized, a fellow employee said to me with a big smile, “I heard you were in the loony bin.” I told him I was in the hospital, and it wasn't funny. When you end up in the hospital it's very serious.

He continued to laugh. “So are you crazy? Do you have a few screws loose upstairs?”

I wanted to smack him and yell, “This isn't a joke. I have a serious illness.” Instead I just walked away.

A mental health hospital is not a looney bin. It is a place where a person with mental illness can get the treatment he or she needs. It is also a place to keep a person safe from harming him or herself.

One day at work, I was taking my anxiety medication and another employee teased, “Are you taking your happy pill? Now you can be happy.”

I replied, “That isn't funny. It's an important pill that keeps me from getting sick. Without it, you'd have to clean up after me.”

Antidepressants and anxiety pills balance the chemicals in a person's brain and make his or her illness manageable. It's not a happy pill that magically takes away your sadness. It doesn't erase internal pain. It takes a mixture of medication and therapy to help a person find the light.

How many times have you heard someone say, “I have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) because I like things neat?”

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is very serious and reaches beyond liking things neat. My husband and I have a friend who has OCD, and he uncontrollably obsesses over small and big things to the point that it drives him deeper and deeper into his dark hole.

There are movies and television shows that turn mental illness into a joke. I watched one movie that had a character who went from one personality to the next. They had the character do hilarious things when he switched personalities. They made Multiple Personality Disorder into a joke, when it is a serious illness.

The truth is mental illness is no laughing matter. It's a real sickness and should not be joked about. It's our job as those who deal with mental illness to tell the world our illness is not a joke. It is real and as serious as cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, and many other diseases.

Do you hear people make jokes about cancer? I've never heard a joke about a person with cancer or any other illness, but yet we laugh about mental illness. No illness is a laughing matter especially mental illness.

When someone jests about mental illness, I tell them it's not funny. I inform them how serious this illness is. Standing up to prejudice and teaching the world around me about mental illness helps the light shine brighter on me and the world.

I will be going to a writers conference this week so there will not be a blog post next week.