Caribbean Mental Illness

To begin this conversation, one must remember that one cannot choose what illness they have, nor can they tell exactly how it will affect the people around them. Realistically, 1 in 4 people in the world suffer with a mental illness of some sort. 50% of children 14 years and under, as well as, 75% of people 25 and under, have shown some sign of a mental illness, yet around 85% of those people go undiagnosed and untreated. This is true in developing and developed countries. Many cultures, such as Caribbean, African, and other extremely religious societies stigmatize mental illnesses. They confuse it with being possessed, or the person’s choice. They believe that prayer will surpass any medicine. This may be true in some cases, but on the basis
of some illnesses, medicine sometimes is more than needed. To me, one thing that we forget as a country, is that medicine and science don’t always cure things. A drug may suppress symptoms, but sometimes, getting to the root of the issue would be more than helpful. Especially for those trauma based conditions, sometimes people just need someone to talk to. Sometimes, counseling helps a person to understand what is eating them up inside and how to get past it. Now, this is not for all conditions, but for many. In the case of my biological mother, for instance, in the course of a week, she was raped, her grandfather, whom she took care of, died on her birthday, and she was in the middle of a huge divorce. During her childhood, she watched her mother get abused by her father. Her mother also left my mother and her siblings to go be with a man. From that trauma, she became depressed, and her Trauma induced Psychosis and Schizophrenia set in and amplified. She never had anyone she could talk to or trust, and the family just put her on medicine. I have watched her get higher dosages of medicine and seeing that it really does not work. She should have been taken to a counselor. This story may reign true with a lot of people. Their family member was put on some type of medicine and dis not see a counselor. Because of that, it seems that the medicine does not work.
1.
Personally, I am claustrophobic. I am “irrationally” afraid of being in closed spaces and being crowed, and closed in by many people. I am not sure why or what happened to me, but the idea of being in a closed or crowed space frightens me. For example, one time I was in line to a party, and they opened the doors. I was in the front and a bunch of people began to crowd around me to the point where I could not move or even attempt to, so I began to panic so much that I passed out. So, because I literally know how it would affect me I would choose to have a phobia. Luckily, my claustrophobia has not caused me to miss out of much of life. I am still very happy go lucky, and I am able to do much of what other people do. The only thing is that I have to be cognizant of where I am going and somewhat brief myself before I go to a party or a concert. Usually, if you see me at a party and too many people are closing around me, I tend to leave wherever I am and go to a different and open area or even outside. Usually, I don’t even go to parties because of that. It really does not affect me or my friends unless on the rare occasion I pass out. Then they would have to catch me. Nevertheless, I make sure I do do the work so that I wont feel panicky or
scared.

2.
If I could choose, I would never want Schizophrenia. It is not because of the biological aspect. It is simply because I know exactly how Schizophrenia can affect a person’s family and friends. I personally, have a family member who has Schizophrenia, and it has affected our family in many ways. I was actually distanced from this side of the family for many years because of this disease. I have lost a relationship that I will never be able to gain back because of this disease. Truly, not all cases are the same, and some cases are more mild, and some people’s symptoms are more suppressed. Nevertheless, I have seen chronic Schizophrenia, and I would not wish it on my worst enemy because of the issues that my family has dealt with. It affects everything relationships with family and friends, the physical brain, the chemical mind, the body, everything. I just could
not.