The statistics of the SAMHSA report makes one statement.
Two-thirds of the mental illness population is not in treatment. People do not
seek treatment, people
do not know where or
how to get help and people who do know where to go for help,
do not receive services in a timely manner.
I can fix all three problems.
If you want to make a difference in this world, your opportunity is found here. If not, consider yourself dead to me on this subject. There is no need to continue to read.
Same is true if your stigma or belief system is so negative, you too are dead to me on this issue. Don't waste your time reading this post. I can not force you to be compassionate towards mental illness, I don't try to be. Its obvious when people pretend. I advise you to go do something else.
You must
want to be part of the solution. No one is going to
force you to learn.
I can address why people don't seek treatment in this post and fix it.
Blogs to follow will fix the problems of not knowing where to go for help and not being able to receive services, both before the next SAHMSA report.
A little knowledge about Mental Illness can go a long way in treatment. As long as you don't invoke a crisis, you are on the path of helping with recovery. Good intentions will go bad from time to time. That's natural. But bad intentions normally succeed in doing harm. In my book,
Mott's mind, I frequently use the Mott motto,
"Let us be known for our deeds as we shall be judged by our deeds."
A
Treatment Partner can become effective with only 40hrs of training.
If you can invest an hour and a half of
your time per week, for 13 consecutive weeks, you will be trained to start your new adventure of being a
Treatment Partner. If you will add to this a few hours of
volunteer time, I can get you educated without
charging you a cent, its free.
With a person wanting to gain knowledge about mental illness, I had a person who traveled 180 miles roundtrip every week because he loves his wife. He wants to help her by understanding her disease and is willing to do anything he can to help her. He wants his wife beside him for the rest of his life. He has the qualifications for the perfect
Treatment Partner. I can help you with
finding the locations of these free classes, regardless of where you reside.
There are two distinct theories for approaching the problem, medications and talk therapy.
Some people respond to medication while others respond to talk therapy using cognitive thinking. Both methods create changes to your neuro-net of the brain.
While the outcome of the change is unknown, either method will change how the mind attempts to correct its cells. Some cells will reroute themselves as other cells will attempt to be self-repairing. Each change is activated by sending a request to another area of the brain. Cells relay the message. For now, I'm going to say its like a spark plug wire, communicating when to power and giving it the needed power to do so. I will be described in detail the spark plug in an upcoming post.
Remember, there are
two distinct methods to fix the communication from cell to cell. A successful transmission is called a synapse.
There are different physical locations a person should reside at to allow cells attempt to make their fix. The environment effects the outcome. An in-patient facility works. An out-patient setting works for being an assisted out-patient treatment center. Being in the mountains of Montana, being out on the range is also a good setting. In each case, you will never be alone.
The person needs to be observed as they go through their daily routine. We are creatures of habit. We repeat our actions. The entity most likely to be aware of these actions is the
Treatment Partner.
Certain malfunctions manifest in to a classification of diseases. There are diseases that can not be recognized by the person with the illness. They have to be told how their emotions and actions are behaving. As an example, a person who is manic can not recognize they are in a state of mania. It feels "normal" to them. A
Treatment Partner must tell the person the change they observe in behavior or looks. If there isn't a
Treatment Partner, the mania will continue until it becomes a crisis.
Psychotropic medications are not like "traditional" pills, like forms of pain killers. Its difficult to suggest psych medications when the results they produce are documented as
unknown, but they work. I have heard too many people say, they or their child took the medication for the entire weekend and it didn't help at all. It was like thinking a person had a headache and took two full days of medication and nothing helped. Pain relief pills would have helped, but this stuff didn't. They throw the medication away, not understanding how some psych medications work. People who have situational depression are prescribed a medication that can take weeks before their body starts to detect a change. They too throw the prescription bottle away and conclude it doesn't work. They tell their friends of their experience, who tells another friend. The word of mouth communication is the best way to get a message out, especially when its bad or negative. Reasons as such keep people from seeking treatment. If a
Treatment Partner is in the pipeline of these discussions, they can shut the pipeline down, go to pumping stations and intervene. Words will be spoken. Those who believe the statements to be true will accept mental health recover. Those who reject the statements will continue to remain untreated. People will either accept or deny thoughts put before them. You turn the pumping stations back on, allow the communication pipeline to continue to flow and wait. You wait until you see the next report from SAMHSA. How many crisis situations existed? Did the number of suicides go down or up? Will SAMHSA add a new column to count
Treatment Partners?
Psych medications are not evil. Some perceive them to be so by looking at what they ca n physically see with their naked untrained eyes. Who can see internal actions being taken in a biochemical way? Especially when power can not be monitored and actions being taken for which no detection device has been created for? The invention has yet to be discovered. Yet, something is happening. It is scarey but not evil.
Some can not imagine having to take a pill for the remainder of their lives, day after day after day. They refuse to commit to do so. Others see the physical side effects. Some refuse the idea that weight gain is possible. They would rather keep their outward looks appealing than focus on the degradation going on in their brain. Kate said it best,
"I would rather be fat than crazy."
The perceptions of psychotropic medications keep people away from seeking treatment.
However, a
Treatment Partner knows there is a different direction that can be taken for treatment, talk therapy.
PTSD is a problem, especially for the military. When I took my class in psychotropic medications from the Kansas University School of Social Services, it was documented that outcomes for treatment were the same, regardless of treatment method.
Talk therapy works. Talk therapy can work for people, who never have to take medication. But what keeps people from talking?
A poll was taken in 1978 to find the greatest thing that caused fear. At the top of the list was speaking to a group of people. Topic did not matter. The act of leaving where you were seated, walking before a group of people make people become nervous. The thought to open your mouth and start speaking is a fear. In anticipation, your inner radar is looking for a response, be it audible or a type of body language. If no one is listening, the speaker turns inward and starts searching for reasons. Watch a stand-up comic that receives no reaction after telling his best jokes. They don't know what to do. This can become overwhelming. People would rather not take the risk.
Stuffing more and more emotions can burst, creating a crisis. Stuffing thought gets to the point of hearing your thoughts, over and over again. The mind becomes tired of listening to itself, it wants this repetition to stop, which makes it become a negative thought in an endless loop which consumes you. A crisis occurs, primarily suicide, to make the noise stop.
It takes much energy to be consumed in thought. This is the reason people with major depression are so tired, it robs so much energy from you.
The energy consumption can become so great, involuntary actions can malfunction. I have sat beside a person, multiple times, who begins to think and feel what the others within the group think and feel about him. His equilibrium malfunctions and he falls out of his chair. He didn't faint. He lost control of what keeps all of us upright and walking straight on a spinning planet that rotates around the son. An unbelievable event! A
Treatment Partner will have incidental contact of all kinds, learning more about emotions and thought processes, seeing the consequences first hand.
Imagine a person having such fear, thinking of sitting in a waiting room, getting up, walking up in front of others to proceed walking in to an office and talking to the group, the group comprised of one person. These people will refuse treatment by thinking through the scenario.
The final reason for not seeking treatment in this post will be about the "smart" people who know the consequences of seeking help, being taken away from their children or their children being taken away from them. They know a therapy session is not a confidential matter. Your therapist most likely is a first reporter, listening for anything that would be judged as child abuse. They also try to perceive if you are a danger to themselves or others. The client may start their session, thinking it is confidential conversation. But as soon as you utter keywords, shows scars or bruising, your private session is over. Your words or looks are recorded in your chart and the authorities are called. A "smart" person will not seek treatment as there would be worse self-induced consequences if something is revealed by mistake. They know that being 100% honest is not the wisest thing to do. They decide it is better to not seek treatment, until a crisis exists.
The above paragraph has initiated state legislators to write protection laws to keep certain situations from being recorded in the clients charts. The rule of charting states if a situation is not recorded, it never happened. In my state, paraphrasing, a depressed person or one with suicidal thoughts are to be asked if they have access to a gun. Of course they have access to a gun. In this state, everybody can gain access.
It makes me wonder how many things are done,in the best interest of all people, that has an adverse effect to the extent that people can justify, without a doubt, they want nothing to do with seeking or asking for help.
Will SAMHSA add a new column to count, or estimate, those who do not seek treatment for a specific reason, that being they don't want help?
Imagine what influence
Treatment Partners could have in everyday life.
