Mental Health Awareness & Mental Illness
Mental health awareness and education should inform us of mental illness. We experience deep loss with debilitating diseases such as severe mental illness. We can draw help and comfort from those who understand, and our faith will get us through the most difficult, even tragic, times.
By Rev. Maria Donnelly, M.Sci.
May is “Mental Health Awareness Month.” A popular expression today is “It’s okay not be okay.” That’s good and true, but we should do more and say more. A consistent lack of good mental health is a sign of mental illness. Optum (2024) provides a good definition of mental health.
“Mental health is a state of mind. When you’re mentally healthy, your feelings, actions and relationships are in a good place. You’re able to love, learn, work and enjoy your downtime. That doesn’t mean things are always rosy. You can have good mental health and still have stress and sadness from time to time. But when you’re mentally healthy, you’re able to cope with the ups and downs of life. And adapting to change comes easier, too.”
What about mental illness? What does that look like? What are the warning signals that there may be a serious problem? This is a question we should each be able to answer. When it comes to mental illness, admittedly, it’s not so easy to recognize the warning signals.
My son has a severe mental illness. He has schizophrenia. To my surprise, May 24th is even designated as “World Schizophrenia Day.”
My son showed signs of mental illness at a very young age when he had recurrent, frightening thoughts at night, even though during the day he was happy, athletic, and had good social skills. A childhood counselor didn’t diagnose a problem. In middle school he had anxious thoughts, although he was very well liked. When evaluated by a school psychologist, again, no problem here. Then there was an occasion, at the age of 16, my son believed something to be present when nothing was there. The ER doctor and the neurologist thought maybe it was concussion related. They didn’t know for sure. Even during all these sporadic events, it seemed that my son had good mental health.
That day in high school, my son had auditory and visual hallucinations and thought something was happening when no one around him saw it. Auditory hallucinations are when the brain creates sounds or voices that aren’t there. These hallucinations are symptoms of schizophrenia although we didn’t know that at the time. Over the next few years auditory hallucinations continued. and became increasingly difficult to bear. During his first year of college he began sharing his experiences with his father and I, and we helped him find a doctor. He was diagnosed and treated for “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with Intrusive Thoughts.” He returned to college but life continued to become more difficult for him. His condition worsened during the Covid epidemic when medical care became (unnecessarily) scarce. His mental illness reached a peak during the height of Covid isolation. When his hallucinations and thoughts involved others, he became so frightened that he decided to take his own life so he wouldn’t hurt anyone. As a result, when our son was just 21 years old, he tried to end it all with a gunshot to the face.
Can you imagine seeing someone in this type of mental torment? It haunts me to this day. My son suffered so much, that when we discovered he had survived the suicide attempt, for one split second I thought of the sadness he would feel when he would awake and find the torment still there. But, by the miraculous hand of God, my son’s life was saved, and because of this, we continue to have hope in the Lord that this disease will one day be controlled or even eliminated, and he will live a happy life.
Not only was my son’s life saved, over the next 13 months and several surgeries, his face was put back together by his awesome medical team of surgeons. However, the misdiagnosed mental illness continued. So his suffering continued until it culminated in another catastrophic event. He was arrested during an out of control psychotic episode. Now my youngest son, my boy, is in a forensic mental institution. Every day continues to be a struggle for him. I believe if he had the correct diagnosis of schizophrenia earlier, he would have received the correct intervention and treatment and be in a different situation right now.
So why am I writing today? It was during a workout at the gym today when I heard an old rap song and my thoughts of regret and pain for my son’s suffering were triggered. He loved to rap, and had a lot of fun with rap battles among his friends and teachers. As I listened to the song, my sense of loss for the life that he had, the laughter that he had, the smile that he had, was all too real. I miss him and I miss his smile. I miss his laugh. I missed the life that he had. I miss the future he dreamed of.
Most of all it hurts to think of how he is suffering. I pray that his suffering will be turned to relief soon. His doctor is about to begin a new medication treatment for him. All I can do is place my prayers and hope in Jesus Christ, the living God who miraculously stopped my son from dying when he tried to kill himself and then restored his face from that attempt. I believe the Lord has a plan to use all this pain for the good. So I leave my son in the hands of Jesus.I pray for him and the medical community that is treating him. I believe he will get better, and that good will come from this. I often feel a sense of deep loss, but I keep my hope in God.
Yes, we have a mental health awareness month. But as a society, we have to understand that mental illness has a physical cause, and when a person has a severe mental illness, they cannot think in a way that makes sense to others. Their brain tells them things that are not true. As a result they do things that are irrational as they respond to their dysfunctional thoughts that come from a brain that doesn’t function correctly. Mental health awareness month should make people understand the symptoms of mental illness so that they can get early treatment. Similar to cancer, successful treatment for people with schizophrenia depends on how early the condition is treated. Before my son was diagnosed with schizophrenia, I did not know the symptoms of the disease. Unfortunately, this disease is difficult for many doctors to recognize. This should not be.
In addition, we should understand that treatment for mental illness is limited. A person with cancer may experience pain as well as symptoms of the disease such as weight loss and lethargy. They will often be prescribed chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery. A person with a mental illness will have symptoms stemming from the brain, but the doctors can’t operate on it. They can’t get chemotherapy or radiation, and they can’t get surgery. They can only get medication, and different talk therapies for dealing with irrational thoughts such as cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure response therapy. Mental illness is a very difficult disease to treat.
Severe mental illness (called SMI) is a challenge that most of us just do not understand. Mental health awareness should include an understanding of severe mental illness. Mental illness, and well as other debilitating diseases, create a sense of deep loss for both the afflicted individual and their family. I am thankful for those doctors and support persons who understand this illness and how to help. We can draw comfort and help in the information and understanding they can provide. We can add that to our faith and the hope we have in Jesus, our Savior and healer.
For a simple comparison between mental health and mental illness, click here https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/what-is-mental-illness
For mental illness and warning signs, click here
ReferenceOptum (accessed 2024 May, 25) What does it mean to have good mental health? https://www.optum.com/en/health-articles/article/healthy-mind/what-does-it-mean-have-good-mental-health/
Note: This was written in 2024. The medication my son was given is working and is showing great improvement. The disease is still there but he is better than the last five years. We are thankful.
Maria and Tom Donnelly- Chaplains to the Forgotten 
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