Lakewood Sun Post - January 5, 2006

Society must eliminate stigma of mental illness

By GEORGE M. STAURSKY
Guest Columnist

Like a tornado striking without warning from a recently bright blue sunny sky, a silent and deadly epidemic once again painfully damaged another unsuspecting family. The silent epidemic is suicide.

As the recent death of James Dungy, the son of Indianapolis Colts football coach Tony Dungy, bears witness to, suicide crosses all social, economic and racial boundaries.

To those who have no idea of the magnitude of this silent killer, think of this. In the last year, more than 700,000 people between the ages of 14-23 in this country were treated in hospitals for unsuccessful suicide attempts.

About 20 percent of all high school students think about killing themselves in a given year, and about 75 percent of those students actually make plans to end their pain with suicide.

To better illustrate the magnitude of these numbers, 14,000 people die in this country every year from AIDS. There were more than 16,000 people murdered in this country each year. It generally is acknowledged that these numbers are not acceptable, and we must do all we can to lower them. No one will argue that a great deal of work needs .to be done on these two issues.

However, what people do not seem to grasp is that, even by combining these two scurrilous numbers, they do not match the number of people who commit suicide. In this country, supposedly with the greatest health care system in the world, more than 32,000 people kill themselves every year.

Frighteningly, many of these victims are at the same age James Dungy was. Most of the victims, if not all of them, suffered in an agonizing silence before they could no longer accept the pain mental illness can bring upon an individual.

If those numbers are not convincing enough, look back to a great tragedy a year ago—the tsunami of 2004 that killed more than 180,000 people. The media called the numbers of victims of this disaster in the range of “biblical” in proportion.

Here in the United States, we couldn’t get relief to the survivors quick enough. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush headed the mammoth fundraising effort to help with relief in the devastated region. Almost all Americans were generous in their prayers and donations to help all these unfortunate individuals.

By contrast, in the same year, you would have to multiply the number of victims of that same tsunami by four to equal the number of people worldwide who committed suicide, approximately 750,000. A suicide occurs every 45 seconds. To the survivors, namely the loved ones left behind like Tony Dungy and his family, the devastation in their respective lives is biblical in size.

With these dangerous numbers staring us in the face, when are we going to finally unmask this deadly illness, and remove the stigma that is the major roadblock for people seeking help? When are we going to acknowledge that this silent killer needs our society to stand up and demand that more needs to be done with this deadly disease?

When do we accept the danger of these illnesses? Do we wait until it is your brother, your sister, your spouse, parent or any other loved one, becomes a victim like James Dungy?

How many more tragedies must occur before we reach out and help the people with mental illness, rather then degrade and mock them?

When won’t society stop the bigotry with mental illness, and have empathy and understanding be the dominant thought?

If you wonder what kind of person would suffer from a mental illness and try and take his own life, let me give you an example. I know a man who was a city councilman, a community leader and a triathlete who did try to end years of torment brought on by a mental illness. That man is me, and I tried on more then one occasion to end the pain that I suffered from bipolar disorder.

I had a silent pain that tore at me for years, and successfully destroyed the life that I had hoped to achieve. I was lucky. I was one of the few to defeat the illness and end the suicidal ideation.

But far too many people, especially young people, end up like James Dungy.

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison of John Hopkins University said people don’t realize how much suicidal people hurt, how long they hurt, and how hopelessly they hurt.

At his son’s eulogy, Tony Dungy said, “I urge you not to take your relations for granted. Parents, hug your kids each chance you get. Tell them that you love them each chance you get. You don’t know when it’s going to be the last time.”

If we do not start breaking down the barriers of the stigma, and bigotry of mental illness, many of us who do hug our loved ones will hug them for the last time, just like Tony Dungy wished he had.

George Staursky, of Brunswick, is a mental health advocate and the author of the book “Goodbye Mom: My Bipolar Journey through Trauma, Tragedy and Recovery.”

© 2006 Sun Newspapers
Reprinted with permission.