Mental Fitness Minute: How do we get a mental illness?

On March 16, a grassroots committee hosted the Worland Mental Fitness Fair at the Worland Community Center.

Members of the panel were Dr. Ralph Louis, psychologist from Oxbow Counseling in Basin; Janae Harman, owner of Family Circle Counseling in Worland; Mary Johnson, CEO of Oxbow Counseling in Worland; and Carol Bell, provisionally licensed therapist at Foundations Counseling in Cody.

The panel answered prepared questions that came from the committee and from similar events in Shell, Greybull and Cowley.

The Northern Wyoming News will be covering the questions on a weekly basis throughout the next several weeks.

How do we get a mental illness?

Louis: You’re not responsible for your mental illness, and you don’t deserve blame for it, or shame for it. It’s something that happens that happens to all of us, it’s we’re all susceptible to it, because we’re humans.

Harman: My answer to that is, is life. We become physically ill, because we live. We become mentally ill because life happens. And we experience life. And we don’t always have the answers to how to make life great. It isn’t always great.

Most of us have at least one period in our life that is really challenging and difficult. We don’t think anything of going to the doctor, if we have a physical ailment to get some advice, or to get a protocol or a treatment to help us get better.

Why do we think that about a mental illness, when we’re not doing well, mentally. There are protocols that can help and supports that can help. It’s just life.

Don’t shortchange yourself and think that you have to make yourself better on your own. Lots of times we think of that as a weakness in our society. And that’s not true. It’s not really any different than a physical ailment.

Johnson : I think, also, we get stuck in the why, all the time. We want to know the answers to everything. Why did this happen? How did I get sick? Who was it that caused this? And if we move forward and recognize that now we’re dealing with it and we find solutions, I think then it moves us forward, instead of staying in the why and blaming people. Why did I get this mental illness? Maybe it’s my family history? Maybe it’s my environment? Maybe it’s all of the above? But do we really need to know why in order to treat the problem and to seek help?

Bell: My answer is sometimes we have no idea. Why did my son get bipolar II? Maybe the trauma of losing his dad, during a time when he was pursuing a very stressful career contributed, but I don’t think I’m ever going to have the answer to that question. And I do feel like, you know, sometimes schizophrenia is genetic, but not always. Often trauma and different experiences can trigger things like depression or anxiety.

For sure, a lot of times the answer to that question lies in what happened to us, but not always. That’s another sadness that I have about the stigma around mental illness. Is that that suggestion that we know why people get mental illnesses, or that something always causes it? Because that is not always true. And even for those of us in the business of helping people through mental illness.

The answer to the question, how do you get a mental illness is pretty elusive for me.

Next week’s question: Why do people in Wyoming have higher rates of suicide, depression and addiction?