ISSUE #45 cont'd ---

(by Caer Weber)

This is a series I’m working on. I have been in a support group for two years and so often people come to the group for the first time and are quite lost. Sometimes they are not even sure if they need help, or if they do, what kind of help is actually available to them. Even when they decide what help they need they don’t know where to find it.

With this project I hope to answer some of those questions and I have divided it up into the three parts below.

Please be aware that I am not a therapist or mental health professional. If you experience any of the symptoms listed you may want to talk to your doctor or some other health professional and get some support

PART I:

How do I know if I need help?

PART II:

What kind of help can I get?

PART III:

Where can I get help?

I will post this whole series in bits and pieces so as not to overwhelm anyone with too much information. Sometimes when we are first in crisis it’s hard to think clearly or focus on what people are telling us. So, I will also divide up the three major parts into smaller parts as well.

As well, I will put all of this under a new HELP page up above so you can refer to it at any time. Part III will also connect directly with the RESOURCES page up top.

PART I:

HOW DO I KNOW I NEED HELP?

Mental Health & Mental Illness
I tend to see mental health and mental illness on a continuum, with health on one end and illness on the other and some of you may see it the same way. This model shows that we all might have some symptoms of mental illness such as those of depression or anxiety at some periods of time but we might also have many aspects of mental health in place at the same period or another period of time. At any given point we might look at the continuum and ascertain where we sit on that continuum. It does not have to be a question of am I mentally ill or not. The more important things for us to ask ourself are ...

Am I in some kind of distress in my life? Am I suffering and in pain emotionally?

Is this distress interfering with my ability to function well in life or is it preventing me from the quality of life I want to have?

Might I benefit from some kind of support and/or help from someone?

The Government of Canada published a report called “The Human Face of Mental Health and Mental Illness in Canada 2006”. I will draw on this report for a number of facts. First of all, the report defines mental health as ...

“... the capacity of each and all of us to feel, think, and act in ways that enhance our ability to enjoy life and deal with the challenges we face. It is a positive sense of emotional and spiritual well-being that respects the importance of culture, equity, social justice, interconnections and personal dignity.”

(quote from the Proceedings from the International Workshop on Mental Health Promotion; 1997. Toronto: Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto: 1997)

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is published by the American Psychiatric Association, is a recognized classification of mental illness and widely used in the U.S. and Canada as well as other countries. Two things that it covers are the factors that influence mental health and mental illness such as family, social relationships, occupation and other aspects of the environment we live in; and a list of mental disorders with a description of their symptoms and details about those symptoms. I’m not suggesting you use it to diagnose yourself but I do draw some of my information from it. It’s a useful tool in understanding how the psychiatric field views mental illness and makes diagnoses.

For the purpose of figuring out whether you might have some mental health problems and might need some professional help with them I’m going to draw on what the DSM calls the GAF or Global Assessment of Functioning Scale. Here we can see whether we are generally in a state of psychological well-being and that we are handling our life pretty well; or we might be able to see that we are struggling with some issues that are causing us to feel unwell and that just maybe we could use some help. It’s useful, as well, to look at some of those factors the DSM includes as those that influence our mental health and mental illness.

So how do we know when we have a problem that we can’t really handle on our own? How do we know what is “normal”, or very common and manageable experiences and responses to life, and when we should ask for help? Below I have set out a guideline to show some of the symptoms or issues that might point out we are having difficulty in our life and could use some help.

HEALTHY,

COPING WELL WITH LIFE

We have some problems, of course, but we can handle them. Below are some of the things we experience that say our quality of life is pretty good. However, this doesn’t mean we don’t need help and/or some kind of support, whether from friends, family or even a health professional. We might still want help for a particular issue that we have more difficulty than usual with.

Support for any problem helps us be stronger and is not a sign of weakness. In fact, it’s the opposite. It takes courage to ask for help.

The characteristics of our life might include:

> generally satisfied with life, have a sense of well-being most of the time;

> no more than everyday problems and we are able to deal with them reasonably well;

> have quite reasonable and expectable reactions to stressors such as anxiety before an exam or job interview;

> people want and like to hang out with us;

> enjoy being with people and are quite comfortable in most social situations;

> have the occasional argument with someone and do get reasonably upset about it afterwards but eventually we work it out by ourself or with the help of someone else;

> get a lot of pleasure out of doing a number of things such as hobbies, sports or other activities;

> like our job, or enjoy school, and do well at it.

SOME PROBLEMS and SYMPTOMS

At this point we might need some professional help because we have noticed some changes in our behaviour and feelings lately. We may not be coping as well as we used to. Some of our problems tend to overwhelm us and we can’t seem to get past them as easily as before. We’re not our usual self.

Some signs and symptoms might include:

> some mild depression and feeling down or blue sometimes;

> some trouble sleeping at nights or we are sleeping a lot more than we used to;

> occasionally experience more panic or anxiety about things than we used to and which sometimes prevents us from doing things we used to do quite easily;

> some difficulty in relationships, maybe some unresolved conflict, but we still have some meaningful and satisfying relationships overall;

> social occasions are harder to go to than before;

> temporarily falling behind at work or in school and/or having some difficulty concentrating and focusing on our work;

> are absent from work or school more than usual due to emotional difficulties and some depression;

> having conflict with others at work or school as we seem to be more irritable or fearful than usual.

SERIOUS and/or SEVERE PROBLEMS

Here is the point we definitely need professional help and support. Life has become unmanageable and quite overwhelming for us. We feel miserable and unhappy most of the time and sometimes don’t even want to live anymore.

Some of the symptoms we experience might include:

> having frequent thoughts of suicide and maybe even a suicide plan or attempting suicide;                      WARNING!! .....

IF YOU EXPERIENCE ANY OF THESE THINGS IT IS

CRITICAL YOU GO TO EMERGENCY OR SEEK SOME KIND OF

PROFESSIONAL HELP RIGHT AWAY!!

Other symptoms might include:

> having obsessive thoughts and/or rituals that may not make any sense to us or seem inappropriate to the situation such as compulsively washing our hands 20 times a day, counting things over and over, or checking we have locked the door 10 times;

> people telling us, or we perceive, our speech is sometimes illogical, obscure or seems irrelevant to the conversation or situation.  People say they often don’t understand what we are saying;

> experiencing hallucinations – seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, or smelling things in our environment that no one else senses (for example, seeing strange animals, hearing people talking about us even when they are too far away, hearing voices in our head, thinking the tv is talking specifically to us)

> having delusions – ideas about ourself or things that don’t match reality (for example,  we can save the world, or the government is out to get us)

> people telling us our judgment is impaired or our ideas are not reasonable such as we invest a large amount of money in an idea that is not sound, or we run out on the street with no clothes on;

> staying in bed all day and/or rarely leave our house;

> have the urge to harm ourself or other people;

> often full of uncontrollable rage and physically attack other people;

> don’t take care of ourself – don’t eat well, don’t shower often enough, don’t wash our clothes;

> withdraw from the world, have no friends or avoid other people completely;

> totally neglect our responsibilities such as caring for our dependents;

> are unable to go to work or keep any job or continue school.

The next section will be an example of problems we might be having that can help us identify more clearly why we are not feeling so well. It will zero on those different factors that influence our mental health or illness such as problems with our primary support group, or financial  or legal problems. I will also list the symptoms of some of the major mental illnesses such as depression, Anxiety Disorder and Bipolar Disorder.