Mental Illness Awareness Week Oct 7 -13

Mental Illness Awareness Week was established by the U.S. Congress in recognition of efforts by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to educate and increase awareness about mental illness. Mental Illness Awareness Week takes place every year during the first full week of October (Oct 7-13 2018). During this week, mental health advocates and organizations across the country join to sponsor events to promote community outreach and public education concerning mental illnesses such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. The current theme of Mental Illness Awareness Week is to Cure Stigma.

Stigma is when someone views a person in a negative way just because they have a mental health condition. Stigma has been described as a feeling of shame or judgement from someone else. Stigma can even come from an internal place where people confuse feeling bad with actually being bad.

To help bring awarness to this stigma, NAMI has created several tools to help individuals determine if they have a stigma or not. One of the tools is a simple quiz, a pledge and three steps to be stigma free. All can be accessed here.

Mental Illness, Substance Abuse and Eating Disorders

It is rare that any self-destructive condition, be it addiction or an eating disorder, exists all on its own.

The human mind is a complex thing. So many of the choices we make every day are fueled by biological and chemical processes we are completely oblivious to, not to mention our emotional drive.

As a licensed dual-diagnosis treatment facility, Fairwinds Treatment Center supports Mental Illness Awareness Week and our team is available to discuss treatment options with those struggling with a Mental Illness or co-occurring addiction or eating disorder.

If you or a loved one are struggling with a mental illness, our admissions team is here to discuss your situation and help set a path to recovery.