You can't be compassionate without experience. You also can't be compassionate if you have experience but feel shame. I am talking about mental health.
Nearly 1 in 4 Americans has experienced mental health issues ranging from easily overlooked social anxiety to nationally reported psychosis. It may have occurred once, during a short period or over a lifetime. It follows that all of us have been affected by it.
It is amazing that while mental health professionals have been talking about it for years, decades really, lay people can't seem to have the same conversation. Having a family member with more severe forms of illness is extremely isolating. That once a month support group can't begin to make up for the loneliness of not feeling comfortable talking to friends or extended family. Yet, like the sick person, families need ongoing care and support.
Lesser forms can be just as debilitating. Anxiety can lead to depression or substance abuse. Brilliant ideas cannot be turned into brilliant products or services if the fear of being in a crowd overcomes the desire to let the world know.
We need to re-brand mental health. I commit to use a chunk of my time in 2009 gathering information, putting it into articles and blogs and spreading the word that we must use our collective networks to address these issues so that - at the very least - we will become compassionate.
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