Stigma hurts, so we are dedicating this issue of the Concord Community Advisor to the discussion of the facts about mental illness. In doing so, we hope to honor the brave individuals who achieve recovery, as well as those who continue to struggle with this most misunderstood of human maladies. They are not the result of poor parenting. Mental illness causes a disturbance in thinking, feeling, and relating. Mental illness can result in a lessening capacity for coping with ordinary demands of life.
Mental illness can happen to children, teens, adults, or older adults.
Mental illness is not the same as mental retardation. One in four persons or 25 percent of the population, will have an episode of mental illness in their lifetime. The person is more than just the illness. Despite media portrayals to the contrary, individuals with mental illness are much more likely to be victims of violence rather than the perpetrators of violence. Mental illness is not a personal weakness.