May is Mental Health Awareness Month. By having open conversations about the topic you can help reduce the stigma and ensure people get the help they need. Avera’s outpatient behavioral health manager, Sara Van’t Hul, explains how common mental illness is and where you can find resources.
What is mental illness?
Mental illness is very similar to a physical illness. They are conditions that happen because of a lot of various factors in life and most stressors start to affect us in ways that we don’t even quite realize until we are at that point where we need to take a step back and look at, "what do I have going on here?"
How common is it?
Three-fourths of individuals that have any kind of a mental health diagnosis have been diagnosed by the age of 24. It is very common. One out of every five adults have some kind of mental illness that they are working on or working through. It can happen at any period in our life.
Are there warning signs?
Any change in what we would consider your regular functioning so any time you are not sleeping well, any time you are maybe not eating, a little bit of brain fog or some confusion, or maybe there are some beliefs that are kind of unusual, maybe you have a mood swing going from happy to sad or you’re sleeping a ton. Just anything that changes with your typical day-to-day stuff.
How can we reduce stigma around mental illness?
Being able to get out education in regard that this really is something, it’s not just feeling sad or it’s not just feeling super tired, it really is a condition that we need to treat whether it be through counseling, medication, or some different thinking. The biggest thing we can do would be to support those that have some mental health issues.
What resources are available?
Regardless of where you are at you can dial 988 if you feel suicidal or feel like you need to talk to someone immediately. There are many resources here in our community, many of them are at Avera. We do have Avera Behavioral Health Hospital, if you do feel like you’re in an acute crisis you can present yourself to urgent care for assessment, or we have a number of counselors here in our community who are here to support you.
Learn more about behavioral health services at Avera
