I am writing about mental health in response to the letters to the editor in last Wednesday’s Leader (Feb. 10). It was great reading the letters – not great that people are suffering, but great that more of us are not keeping the suffering to ourselves as much.
Nonetheless, society still has a long way to go before mental health is as openly looked at as, for example, cancer. Those of us who suffer with mental health issues do not choose to engage in them.
I have been battling with mental health issues for eight years, however, I feel like I have been emotionally struggling ever since Grade 2. I am almost 22.
I have been dealing with an eating disorder, along with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and depression. As a youth, getting help was easily available. There are still not as many resources as for someone battling a physical crisis, but if you seek them, resources are there.
As I hit rock bottom during my youth, I went into treatment and was able to actively recover for about a year. However, I relapsed, and the difference was I was an adult. Boy, do things change.
Getting help is so much more difficult. Instead of all the free resources available to children, adults must pay unless they are so medically unstable they are required to go to hospital. That is what happened to me.
Currently I am getting help from outpatient services and am getting ready to go into a full-time recovery residence.
There needs to be action by our government to provide more accessible resources as well as better education about such conditions. Mental health needs to be in the forefront just like any other illness.
One in five people suffer from a mental illness and almost everyone knows someone who has been struggling. If people don’t know someone, then that is because most people suffer in silence.
Name withheld by request
