There comes a point in homes with mental illness when it’s time to stop hiding from it and start being proactive. One of the issues that happened early on when we noticed that our son was possibly dealing with depression or anxiety–we didn’t really even have words for these issues back then in our home– but once we realized that something was wrong and that he didn’t seem to be getting over it on his own, we took him to his pediatrician. Once there, the pediatrician put him on an anti-depressant (the wrong one, it turned out, as he had a terrible reaction to the medicine!) and recommended that we find a therapist. Due to the stigma around mental illness, we didn’t want to find a therapist in our town. I had this vision of sitting in a waiting room somewhere and seeing people that we knew come in. I would feel the blush of embarrassment in my mind, and decided that we should look in the city nearby for a therapist. Wasting precious time due to the stigma. Not knowing that I only had 16 days to find a therapist, not realizing what was right in front of us, where we were headed. After our son’s suicide attempt, yes, almost too late, we decided that we would not hide anymore. We told everyone what our son was dealing with and how to help us. I am grateful that we are now so open, in hopes that we can help others be so bold. But wouldn’t it be wonderful—just amazing–if we lived in a world where I would have known where to go and get help BEFORE we had to spend 4 days in ICU with our son, fighting for his life. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have had a place to go or people who could have guided me? That everyone knows exactly what to do when a loved one is going through the dark? The hiding wastes precious time and fuels the stigma around mental illness. We can change that. What if we wouldn’t accept the stigma and boldly came out to the world that we will not be silenced and shamed. We can change the stigma and we must—our loved ones lives are depending on it.
When You are DONE with Hiding Mental Illness
