Food for thought on mental illness

Your editorial of Mar 5 contained much food for thought.

The other side of the argument needs to be stated.

With proper care, many people recover from mental illness. Many others learn skills to cope with their suffering.

A significant statistical correlation would not be sufficient proof that some types of anti-depressants cause suicides.

A considerable amount of medical evidence would also be necessary. By the time they seek help, troubled people may already be prone to suicidal thoughts in the dark night of their souls.

Afflicted people are often the last to seek help because of the social stigma attached to their illness.

They feel enormous shame. They are in a dark place.

They feel isolated. They may feel God has deserted them.

They are often misunderstood. Their friends may not know how to deal with them. Society fears them and shuns them like lepers. They fear their employers may discover their secret. They dread the label of “inadequate”. Many of them carry their cross in silence all their lives. When they cry, they cry alone, until somebody takes the time to reach out gently to listen to them.

Some psychiatric hospitals are cold, grey Victorian buildings.

It was a major mistake to downsize and shut so many. People still have to wait in long queues in corridors on uncomfortable chairs, alone with their thoughts. They may then get ten minutes with an overworked psychiatrist.

The first rule of healing is that every patient deserves respect.

Good medical attention is the highest service that any person can give another. Medicines give many people fulfilled lives they can enjoy. It takes a little time to get the dosage of prescribed drugs right.

The biggest failing of mental hospitals is their lack of talking therapies.

A combination of counselling and medicines is the best course of treatment.

One in every four people bravely suffers a mental illness at some stage in their lives.

If the Government have an ounce of common humanity, they must allocate more funding to help the people who suffer most in our society.

Michael Mernagh

Raheens

Carrigaline

Co Cork