How low can you go often is how low can I go? Low can mean depression or poverty or illness or two or three of these low states. One can be low with hope or one can be low without hope. Hope can be faith that things will get better and all will be well. Without hope there is not much meaning in life and one can choose to stay busy and ignore meaning or feel like ending life.
There is an editorial column in today’s newspaper with the story of a young black man who committed suicide. It talks about how because of the stigma of mental illnesses or suicide there is not much talk about it in the African American community. This comes at a time when “suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15- 34 old year old black men and when suicide has increased 233% for black men, 15–24 years old in the last 15 years. Startling but sadly these numbers are not surprising. The columnist asked the question: “Why are some people embarrassed to talk about a loved one with a mental illness, but they are not ashamed to wear a T-shirt with the picture of someone who was murdered?”
Suicide happens, as I sadly know from my son’s death, when someone feels there is no more hope and one accepts it. The Stigma that stains the soul is overwhelming and there is no reason to live.
I believe the only way to move from the stigma of mental illness to hope for mental wellness is to deeply understand that mental illnesses is just another illness like cancer or heart trouble. I have hope that the developing field of neuroscience will help us understand how mental illness is an illness of the brain and thus remove much of the stigma from it. Without the stigma of mental illnesses suicides would decrease because the hope of treatment, as with cancer, can keep people alive. We need to move from stigma to science.
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