Mental Illness and our Families

   Any posts or new breakthrough research in mental health always grabs my attention because I have a brother and mother who suffer from schizophrenia. It has completely altered the way I have grown up and experienced life, and having the one caregiver in my life disabled has made it difficult. My brother understands his diagnosis but my mother refuses to believe anything is wrong and continues to delve deeper into her world which is far from reality and has a lot to do with spirits, Satanic influences, Jesus, and religion. Her hatred and paranoia towards me for being a homosexual has aggravated her schizophrenia even further and she only views me as a threat, even though all I want is for her to receive help and diagnosis from professionals who can help her be the lovable, laughing woman she used to be. The disease is so crippling she has lost her job, disappears into silent seclusion and has very distorted thoughts and speech. Her life is far from normal and it is quite alarming to witness, although I feel helpless to do anything. All attempts to get her to see she is mentally sick and needs help is met with deranged laughter.

I know that I am not the only one who is suffering with a mentally sick family member. The black community has many cases of Depression and schizophrenia, diseases that affect the entire family. It is hard to ignore--it is the invisible elephant in the room. It is crucial for family members to read material on these subjects and to stay caught up on any medical breakthroughs because we need to heal our families and get them through this. There is medicine and professional help that can rehabilitate them and assist them so they can function normally in today's society. Diseases like this keep people from succeeding, and they are often unreported because people assume Black people are just "lazy" although the truth is there is something very wrong that needs attention. It is painful and I think it needs more attention than it is receiving. Right now, Alzheimer's Disease is receiving a lot of attention in Canada but I hope schizophrenia is on the agenda.

The best we can do is to be as supportive of our sick family members or close friends, let them know we are there for them and not to express anger and frustration. It is not their fault they are suffering. I will be posting more information on Schizophrenia and how it affects the Black community. Feel free to post your stories because there is many cases out there and even if it doesn't affect you directly, wiping away disease is one of the greatest achievements of humankind.