to celebrate national mental health week, let’s start with three canadian blogs that talk about the topic.
canadian dimension discusses mental health in first nations communities:
… native poverty, alcoholism and suicide are almost never championed as a charitable cause … so it is easier for canadians to write cheques for relief efforts in afghanistan than to donate to struggling reserves in their own country, despite the overwhelming need.
in webequie, everyone has lost a close relative or friend, and yet almost no one ” including parents of the dead ” has sought out the handful of crisis counsellors, often neighbours, employed at the local nursing station. death is so lodged in the collective psyche that parents refuse to discipline their children for fear of inviting suicide.
(click here for the whole article)
afghani blog tells us about mental health problems among our soldiers in afghanistan:
a psychiatrist who treats veterans said: “it was surprising to find how impaired patients are with chronic complex post-traumatic stress disorder in areas of functioning interpersonally, within families, within relationships and with motivation.
“this new generation of veterans will be challenging to treat, because they have co-occurring mental health disorders,”
seal believes that the youngest veterans were most affected, because they saw the most combat. “combat exposure directly correlates with the development of ptsd and other mental health diagnoses,”
canadian soldiers suffering from mental illness (including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder -ptsd) are still being sent to afghanistan. there are 83 soldiers suffering from ‘non-battle (nbi) injuries’, which includes those deemed not mentally fit for duty.
(click here for the whole article)
comedian harris goldberg discusses the great mental health challenges that inspired the movie numb:
i was considered a high concept, studio comedy writer. little did i know during those years of delivering broad films with big set pieces to score that high, double digit opening weekend, my mind was getting ready for something i never could have predicted.
the prediction came true on the night of february 14, 1991 where i hit a wall so bizarre, so strange, so painful that i’d wonder if i’d ever make it out alive. it took years of silent suffering before i had the wherewithal to write what was happening to me. i called it numb because that’s exactly how i felt. numb to everything around me. including myself. no one ever knew. no one could ever tell. i bravely hid this mysterious malady through sheer will power as my world closed in on me.
as hudson describes in the film, the psychological definition of this condition was called “depersonalization:” the feeling that everything around me appeared unreal, as if living in some kind of hellish dreamlike state.
(click here for the whole article)
isabella mori
moritherapy
counselling in vancouver
interested in more articles on mental health? you might find these interesting:
personal crisis management
real life experience: bipolar and medication
illness? normal? i just want to feel good