While resources are available to direct the paths of treatment, they rarely address societal attitudes that perpetuate the stigma surrounding mental illness. This resource hopes to show that serious mental illness is not a choice or a weakness. Medication, therapy and honest communication may resolve longstanding issues that for too long led only to rejection and denial. Mental illness crosses all social, ethnic and economic lines, living among children and old folks, destitute and privileged. Far from being a permanent crisis, though, mental illness when treated can lead to productive and meaningful recovery, which can in turn lead to reconciliations among families, restored confidence, deeper spiritual commitment or career success.
Treatment can return colors to a grayed-out world and laughter to an aching body.
It can bring about a thorough self-knowledge that often escapes the masses, or, perhaps, an appreciation for life heretofore deemed impossible. This guide will attempt to address the misconceptions that derail our understanding of these illnesses. It is designed as a starting point for the dialogue that must accompany the symptoms and the diagnosis of mental illness. It will point toward relevant community resources statewide, and will recommend reading or computer browsing for more comprehensive information. It is the continuing hope of the AIM-Awareness coalition that this resource helps to make mental illness a demystified condition which can be treated and, most importantly, can be accepted as an obstacle, but not a death sentence.