Mental Health

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Just this week, the Surgeon General of the United States wrote, “We Have Become a Lonely Nation. It’s Time to Fix That”. He described his own bout of loneliness and its debilitating effects.

For some of us, springtime is when we go for our annual health check-ups. It is a time to make sure our bodies are in working order, even the parts that are unseen. However, for most of us, we do not get a mental health check-up to address issues like anxiety, loneliness, fear, depression etc. 

People continue to be uncomfortable talking about mental health issues. The way we avoid mentioning mental health is similar to the way in which there was great discomfort mentioning the word cancer years ago. If cancer was mentioned, it was often in a whispered tone. Mental health is a health issue. It needs to be taken out of the shadows.

We are coming out of Covid and along with the physical effects of the pandemic, there are others. There is no going back to normal if we do not confront the trauma we all experienced. But there is no need to do it alone. Continue to reach out to those in your circle, find out how they are doing and if you are feeling low and anxious, reach out, speak up. It’s not that anyone can “fix” someone else’s issues, but those issues are far easier to deal with when one does not feel isolated and alone.

Remember, it is ok to talk about our mental health the same way we discuss our physical health. 
A local resource that provides support is National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City (NAMI-NYC).