Julien's Journal May 2016 (Volume 41, Number 5) | Page 39

by Debra Klein, School Counselor and Vice
President for Mental Health America (MHA)
of Dubuque County

T

here are many things in our daily lives that can impact our mental health
and the mental health of our family members, friends, and neighbors. In
response to the ongoing needs within our community, we continue to work
vigilantly toward improving awareness, accessibility, and mental healthfriendly legislation as we collaborate with our community partners.

Whether or not we have a mental illness or we know someone who has
experienced it, we all use our mental health to help us cope with daily life
and its challenges. The best way to explain “mental health” is to ask, “How do we cope with
daily life and the challenges it brings?” When our mental health is strong and positive, we
can deal better with what comes our way at home, at work, and in life in general.
When mental health issues arise, catching the symptoms and conditions at the onset is
known as “early identification and intervention.” However, many times people may not realize that their symptoms are being caused by a mental health condition or feel ashamed to
pursue help because of the stigma associated with mental illness. It’s up to all of us to know
the signs and take action so that mental illnesses can be caught early and treated, so that
we may live up to our full potential. Even though mental illnesses may require intensive,
long-term treatment and a lot of hard work at the later stages, people can and do recover
and reclaim their lives.
One way to see if you may be experiencing symptoms of a mental health condition is to
take a screening. Visit www.mhascreening.org to take a quick, confidential screening for
a variety of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, mood disorders, or
post-traumatic stress disorder. Use your screening results to start a conversation with your
primary care provider, or a trusted friend or family member and begin to plan a course of
action for addressing your mental health.
It is also important to change the way we think about and view mental illness. When we
think about cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, we don’t wait years to treat them. We start
way before Stage 4. When people are in the first stage of those diseases and have a persistent cough, high blood pressure, or high blood sugar, we try immediately to reverse these
symptoms. This is the path that people need to take when there is a serious mental illness.
When symptoms are first experienced, such as loss of sleep, feeling tired for no reason,
feeling low, feeling anxious, or hearing voices, we need to act.
These early symptoms might not ever become serious. Like a cough, they often go away on
their own and are nothing to fear. When these symptoms do not go away, it can typically
take years from the time they first appear until someone gets a correct diagnosis and proper
treatment.

May 2016  ❖  Julien’s Journal  ❖ 35