Give Mental Health Patients A Chance

Not Giving Up On Mental Illness

Many people continue to view mental health patients as “the crazies; the no good for nothing weirdos who do weird things and are just weird!” But this couldn’t be farthest from the truth. With a little medication and some talk therapy, you can unmask the most beautiful flowers that you will ever come across; more beautiful than many people who don’t have a mental illness. Remember that it’s not what goes inside one’s mouth that makes or breaks an individual; it’s what comes out because what comes out is from the heart.

With mental illness, it’s easy to erroneously believe that one’s heart is wicked, rotten or broken from the start. But it’s not their heart; it never was. It’s their mind which is malfunctioning, giving the appearance of a bad heart. It’s often easier to fix one’s mind than it is to fix one’s heart; once the heart goes astray, only God has the ability to help their poor soul. But with the mind, many wonderful opportunities are available if an individual with a mental illness is given a chance.

Many mentally ill patients suffer from a chronic disorder, giving even the most experienced psychiatrists loss of hope for return to a stable state of mind. But loss of hope is the difference between those who don’t achieve from those who conquer the highest mountains. Treating a mental illness may prove to be challenging at times, but what is more challenging is finding the strength to believe in your patient when your patient doesn’t believe in themselves.

Patients must always be given a chance no matter how chronic their illness is. As psychiatrists, we don’t rely on miracles but experience, knowledge, art and faith. As Jesus Christ once said, “The people of today want a miracle. I will not give them one.” We don’t need a miracle to see improvement; we just need empathy, on-point psychopharmacology and the belief that our patients will improve.

Sometimes we have to believe for our patients when they lack the belief in themselves. Sometimes we have to give the people who we know in our lives more opportunities to access mental healthcare, especially when the opportunities lie down the street or around the corner. Sometimes we have to extend a hand and place our interests aside for one day. Sometimes we have to let go of our ego and focus on helping someone else out, even when we don’t feel like being of help.

Sometimes we just need to give someone a chance, for a chance is all that they are asking for. Sometimes a chance is all they need to recover from their mental illness.

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)