Stigma

Cancer, like any other illness, comes with a wide variety of ancillary health-related issues to deal with.  Though it's something that fortunately has not been a part of my cancer journey, depression is among those sidecar issues.  Depression alone is a serious mood disorder that should not be ignored - as part of cancer, or particularly on its own.

The statistics on mental illness in the US are staggering: According to NAMI, approximately 20% of American adults in 2022 experienced a mental illness (equivalent to nearly 50 million Americans), compared with roughly 1.9 million people diagnosed with cancer in the US in 2022. FYI: The four basic types of "mental illness" include: mood disorders (such as depression or bipolar disorder), anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and psychotic disorders (such as schizophrenia). Cancer and mental illness do share some attributes, and unfortunately one of them is that there still exists a stigma associated with both - though clearly mental illness is much more veiled and misunderstood than cancer.

Let the record be clear, mental illness is a medical condition, just like heart disease or diabetes. And mental health conditions are treatable. We are continually expanding our understanding of how the human brain works, and treatments are available to help people successfully manage mental health conditions.  But how we feel about it within our own selves, or how we deal/relate to others in our families or lives or larger society, needs a lot more awareness and sensitivity and tolerance and patience and education and support.

No one ever said to me, "Hey, you're just going through a rough patch and you need to power past this cancer thing.  Buck up, and think about how lucky you are!"  But those words (or similarly misguided pieces of advice), are often the common diagnosis-and-treatment suggestions heard by those 50MM out there struggling with a frightening condition that is as baffling to all of us as it is to them.

I know that there is a lot of life out there that we all need to get better about, and I'm not here to lecture anyone, but the prevalence of mental illness in America is not going away - if anything it gets worse every day (especially increasingly afflicting young and old people). Its victims are often marginalized to the fringes, or remain hidden behind the curtains of urban and suburban homes on every block. We don't need to all suddenly become psychiatrists, but if nothing else, let's take a moment to think about our loved ones or friends, and imagine that it could be more than just "a bad day" which is disrupting them and their lives.