“It’s all in my head.”
The brain is a mysterious and a very complex organ. Mental illness undermines the brain’s power and control. Mental illnesses are brain disorders — whether they are all to do with misfiring, faulty wiring, burned up connections or no connections.
The challenge is to know that equipping the brain with its full potential is not always limited to medication. It takes a circular approach of connecting the person with the disorder; looking at what paths it tends to take and helping re-route it with support.
It has been long accepted that mental illness and the “book of disorders” includes but is not limited to depression, substance abuse/dependency, and dementia. However clumping all of these into mental illnesses minimizes the complexities involved when most illnesses come from an organ with 300 billion neurons and layers of blood vessels directing every movement and perception.
We’ve all heard the phrase “it takes a village.” Dealing with mental illness takes a village; a community and a cultural accountability to provide a helmet of protection to the vulnerable brain.
Mental illness is a community issue and one that we must deal with together.
