It was hot and humid today and will be the next two days. Just last week it was cold and rainy. Where did spring go? I missed spring this year but the weatherman says it is coming later this week. I cannot wait.

I worked outside again today trying to catch up with the garden work I usually do in the spring. But I could not take it for a long amount of time as the heat and humidity got to me. We do not have much direct control of the weather so must bear with it.

I have been thinking a lot recently of an area of life that we do have some control but frequently fail to take it, which is mental illnesses or brain diseases. a disease that affects one of our four persons, As a result of our lack of concern for these illnesses, not treating it with research and care as other illnesses, many people suffer and some die of this disease. We tend to look at these types of diseases as character flaws rather than illnesses. Some like Alzheimer we recognize as an illness but most like schizophrenia we do not.

When Aids started to kill people and we found out it just not in the gay community much money, research and care was put into this disease. There were gay activist who help make this happen. Now very few people die of Aids.

There have been great advances in other medical research and it securing the civil rights of minorities, people with disabilities and others. However, mental illness or certain brain diseases still cause a stigma on people, especially poor people with these illnesses. Even many persons with this illness look on it as a character flaw rather than a physical brain illness.

Sometimes I believe what we need is a civil rights movement with and for persons with these illnesses. It will be difficult since part of these illnesses is a lack of acceptance from the ill person.

A friend is doing research and writing on why people still die of mental illnesses or brain diseases? I do not have the answer but know the question all so well and am struggling to fight for human rights of people who suffer these illnesses.

I mentioned before the 2011 class motto of Columbine High School in Littleton, Co. The 2011 class had a person who overcame cancer with proper treatment and had person who died, suicide, from a mental illness or brain disease. The motto the 2011 class adopted is a quote from Dr. Seus that says a lot about how we are. It is: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” The mind or brain can become sick but it should not matter in being who we are. The mind is matter.

Comments

(:commentboxchrono:)