WISCONSIN UNITED
for MENTAL HEALTH

Mental illness -- which can vary in severity from mild depression, panic attacks or anxiety to schizophrenia or bi-polar disorders -- is all too often treated like something shameful or not to be talked about. That isolation and stigma only cause those with a mental illness, which in all likelihood can be successfully treated, to not seek help and continue suffering in silence. Too often, those who suffer from mental illness feel their disease is their fault and that they should be able to control it on their own.

In fact, approximately two-thirds of the 44 million Americans who have diagnosable mental disorders do not seek treatment. In my continued efforts to help keep every Wisconsin woman and her family and loved ones healthy, that is just not acceptable.

Society can no longer assume that if a person looks healthy on the outside, they are healthy on the inside. We instead must help create an environment that encourages people to seek information on and treatment for mental illnesses.

I am helping to launch an organization that strives to do just that. Wisconsin United for Mental Health is a new umbrella organization that will educate and increase awareness about mental illness as a real and common disease that is treatable. The organization includes many non-profit organizations, consumer groups, social service agencies and others. Members of the group are diverse, just like the population mental illness strikes.

Mental illnesses can and do afflict people of all ages and all ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds. In fact, some well-known people who have suffered from mental illness include Marie Osmond, Tipper Gore, Carrie Fisher and Rosie O’Donnell. And, some of the most brilliant people in history suffered from severe mental illness, including Abraham Lincoln, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Vincent Van Gogh, and Isaac Newton.

Some mental illnesses are caused by biochemical disturbances in the brain and others, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, are caused by exposure to an extremely stressful event such as rape, combat or a natural disaster. Other disorders that fall under the broad category of mental illnesses include attention deficit disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorders, anorexia nervosa, autism and more.

Thankfully, treatments for mental illnesses, which are often a combination of medication and psychotherapy, have improved over the years. Today, treatment success for those with mental illnesses has increased between 60 and 80 percent, and the cost of treating mental disorders continues to decrease as more is learned about drugs that affect the central nervous system. It is also important for people to realize that the treatments for mental illness are at least as successful as the treatments for physical illnesses such as heart disease.

To share this type of information, Wisconsin United for Mental Health has created a Web site at www.wimentalhealth.org to provide facts on mental illness as well as a place where people can turn for help in their community. In the future, the site will also provide a forum for people to talk with others about mental illness, testimonials from Wisconsin residents who have had a mental illness, and a registration page to receive updates and information on mental health issues. The organization also plans to launch a speaker’s bureau of those recovering from mental illness, statewide roundtable media discussions, public service announcements and advertisements, and more.

Wisconsin United for Mental Health can shed some much needed light on mental illness, but we can all take steps individually as well.

If you have suffered from a mental illness, tell your story. Keeping it inside keeps it from helping another. Don’t be critical or judgmental of someone with a mental illness. Remember we don’t expect people with a broken leg to pedal a bike. If someone tells a joke about mental illness that is offensive or cruel, tell him or her so.

These are ways that each of us can help make a difference for hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites. Another way is to learn more about mental illness. If through sharing information we can all be more knowledgeable about mental illness and more accepting of those who have it, Wisconsin will be a better place.

For more information about local mental health resources or about Wisconsin United for Mental Health, please call the Mental Health Association of Wisconsin [formerly Mental Health Association in Milwaukee County] (414-276-3122 or 866-942-6483) or refer to the Wisconsin United for Mental Health website (www.wimentalhealth.org) . Links to other resources can also be found at the Wisconsin Women’s Health Foundation website (www.wwhf.org) or by calling the Wisconsin Women’s Health Hotline 1-800-218-8408.

Reprinted with permission of Wisconsin Woman Magazine.