Acadia Touch Points Blog

David Prescott, PhD

Assistant Professor and Director of Healthcare studies at Husson University, and a psychologist for EMMC Behavior Medicine Service

I almost always feel satisfied when I arrive again at the conclusion that in many ways people are not all that different from each other.  In considering how each of us can help people with diagnosed mental illness live fully and have a life with meaning, I once again came to that conclusion.

Early recognition, support, and treatment improve the chances of recovery from any illness, including mental illness.  The logic here makes sense to most people, and it translates easily from physical illnesses to mental illness. If you treat high blood pressure and high cholesterol before you have a heart attack, you may avoid the heart attack altogether.  If you diagnose schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in their earliest forms, a person has the best chance of living a fulfilling and meaningful life.

With many mental illnesses, the occurrence of the first major episode of difficulty occurs between the mid teens and mid twenties.  This is certainly true with schizophrenia, a mental illness where our early detection skills have improved significantly in the past decade. 

But, consider what it means to be told that you have any severe illness when you are 16 or 17 years old.  For those of us who have passed that age, let us try to remember our world view at that time.  When you were that age, did you have a good idea of where you wanted to be and what you wanted to achieve in the next 10 years?  Was it clear to you what it would look like if you reached your full potential?  Did you come anywhere close to factoring a chronic illness into your plans?

Current recovery models for people with mental illness laudably define recovery from mental illness as, “…a process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential.”  Mental health practitioners, general health practitioners, and parents spend a great deal of time and effort trying to convince young people recently diagnosed with mental illness that they will benefit from engaging in treatment.  The idea, they point out, is that treatment will help the young person improve their mental health to the point where they can make decisions about their own lives and reach their own goals.  

We should expect that young people will resist treatment.  The very premise that something is wrong, that their mental health needs to be improved, and that they may not be able to live a self-directed life is often rejected by teenagers and young adults.  Parents and health professionals can easily become frustrated by this response. 

However, I suspect that most of us were not much different at that age, whether we had a chronic illness, a mental illness, neither, or both.  As teenagers and young adults we assume that we are coming to an age that entitles us to make choices about our life.  The support we need is for others to tolerate our mistakes, help us recover when we stumble, and cheer for our ambitions and our accomplishments. 

I recall several young people with significant mental illness that I worked with in counseling.  As I grew to know them, they would share their ideas, dreams, and aspirations.  Sometimes they were grand: “I want to become a world class musician.”  Sometimes they were modest:  “I want get a job at a local fast food restaurant and live someplace other than with my family.”

Many times I was skeptical of their goals.  But if I listened carefully I would realize that, having goals and dreams was a critical part of their recovery.  If I reflected back on my own life I realized that I was no different.  Not all of my ambitions worked out, but if someone had tried to take them away I would have resisted.

The field of mental health had made significant strides in early recognition of the most challenging mental illnesses.  However, early recognition is just the first step.  Just like all of us when we were teenagers and young adults, people identified at high risk for mental illness need to have ambitions, goals, and dreams.  We can provide support by acknowledging their ambitions, supporting them when they struggle, and realizing that in many ways we weren’t so very different.