Coping with mental health disorder? OK to move forward

UNSPLASH

Studies show 1 in 4 people in the United States will be diagnosed with a mental health disorder, which should be approached as an opportunity to recover.

Mental health is health.

Studies show that 1 in 4 people in the United States will be diagnosed with a mental health disorder. For something so common, oftentimes people feel that this is a sign of defeat and that something is wrong with them.

Novant Health therapist Sheena Baker urges people not to feel down about a diagnosis, but rather let it help you navigate getting better.

“First thing is not to panic,” she said. “We are just putting a name to something that you are already going through. Putting a name to what you are dealing with helps people who can support you know what to do.”

This is how Baker said she explains a mental health diagnosis to her patients. This way they don’t feel like they have been defeated by their mental health state.

“As a therapist, when I have to give people a diagnosis, this is how I talk to them,” she said. “I tell them that [the label] isn’t even for them. It’s for the doctors, therapists and insurance providers to know what to do.”

The big picture is that if someone is already experiencing a problem with their mental health, the stereotypes around labels that go with what is happening in their brain often carries negative connotations. In 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, the topic of mental health started to be talked about a lot more and more commonly accepted.

“Social media has been a huge part of [breaking mental health stereotypes],” Baker said. “There is a lot to be said about the negative things that come from social media. But, something I’ve appreciated is seeing [mental health] being talked about more openly and people making the topic more normal.”

If you know someone that has recently been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, don’t treat them any differently than before their diagnosis because that may trigger thoughts that something is wrong with them and may cause them to feel worse.

“Be normal,” Baker emphasized. “Respond to them the same way you’d respond to them if they said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a cold,’ or ‘Hey, I just found out I’m allergic to shellfish.’ Continue to treat them like the same person and not a person that has a mental health disorder. Sometimes people can be overactive and ask these people ‘Are you okay?’ Continuing to be normal is the best way to avoid people feeling worse about their diagnosis.”

For something that is highly common, the question remains, why do people have such a hard time accepting their diagnosis? Baker feels like it is primarily caused by cultural influences.

“We have a drive to be okay,” she said. “In a time when we aren’t OK, that must mean something is wrong with me. No, that isn’t true. When we think about our emotions, we are taught that these are things we can control and that if we feel a certain way, we are choosing to feel a certain way. There are actually chemical and neurological aspects that are involved and so we have to learn about mental health and not treat it as something uncommon.”

Baker said with her patients, she likes to ask questions to find out the triggers that cause them to feel upset about their diagnosis. Oftentimes she gives simple, yet strong advice.

“Usually what bothers people the most is that it feels like when they hear a diagnosis that means they are broken and something is seriously wrong with them,” she said. “That doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. It means your brain is doing something and we’ve figured out what it is. It is a good thing.”

Said Baker: “Mental health is just another type of [healthcare]. Why do we separate the brain from the other parts of the body? Without the brain, nothing else is going to work. So, we have to help people realize that your mind is just another part of the body that can have problems, too. If we can get people to understand that, it will help people better grasp their diagnosis.”

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