Pathlight by Annie Wenger-Nabigon: What is Mental Health?
Originally from the U.S., Annie earned her Canadian Citizenship in 2013. Annie & her Husband live in Pic River First Nation. She works as full-time as an Adult Mental Health and Addictions Therapist at the Marathon office of North of Superior Counseling Programs. Annie Wenger-Nabigon, MSW, RSW has been a cinical social worker since 1979 working in mental health, family therapy, and addictions services. She is a doctoral candidate at Laurentian University in Sudbury, ON. Annie also works part-time as a consultant for LYNX, owned by her husband Herb Nabigon, MSW. Herb provides traditional Anishnabek teachings and healing workshops for both Native and non-Native organizations. Together he and Annie provide training and education to professionals on a wide range of topics blending mainstream and traditional approaches in healing. They also provide cultural safety and anti-racism training. Do you have questions re: mental health, living a good life, relationships, etc. ?Annie would love to hear them and may even include your questions in a future column (published by-monthly exclusively on OntarioNewsNorth.com) Send your comments or questions to Annie via email to Pathlight@OntarioNewsNorth.com
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Author of Pathlight; Annie Wenger-Nabigon, MSW, RSW
A friend of mine once said to me, “Mental illness is not a choice – mental health is a choice.” That got me thinking – who would choose to have a heart defect? Who would choose diabetes? Who would choose a missing limb? Then it follows – who would choose to have a mental illness? No one chooses mental illness – it just happens, and sometimes for good reason.
Understanding this fact is a key to understanding mental health. Human beings do not make a conscious choice to have a brain disorder like epilepsy, or Alzheimer’s, or schizophrenia, or depression, or panic disorder, or attention deficit disorder, or Tourette’s syndrome, or any number of the mental illnesses that can be diagnosed. If we can simply understand that mental illness – or brain disorder – is an illness like any other illness, then we can reduce the stigma that is so strong in our society against people who have these illnesses.
Mental health, on the other hand, IS a choice! We can choose to use our minds in ways that help to keep us balanced emotionally, socially, spiritually, physically, and cognitively (our ways of thinking). When we refuse to learn, to listen, to work with other people who try to help us, then we are choosing not to be mentally healthy. ANYONE can be mentally healthy, even people who have a mental illness.
Some of the most mentally healthy people I know are people who live with a chronic severe mental illness. They are the bravest, most courageous and strong people I have been privileged to meet and work with. These men, women and children invest their life energies into learning the skills that will keep them balanced and give them the ability to manage their emotions, have happy, functioning relationships, keep active in meaningful ways contributing to their communities creatively, and learn to manage the symptoms of their illness. People who work hard every day just to maintain balance, to monitor their thoughts, feelings and symptoms of illness, and to work with their care providers and medications so that they can live a life worth living are people who deserve my respect.
Most human beings go through their days not thinking about anything other than what they want to eat for lunch, wear to the party, or what new toy they want to buy. They worry and worry about their jobs or lack of them, the problems in their lives, and what others are thinking about them or doing. That is not mental health, even IF they do not have a mental illness.
I’d like my readers to know that mental illness usually (not always) happens when a “perfect storm” of causes come together to bring it forward. Here are the three things:
- A genetic predisposition exists that creates vulnerability in the brain function of a person. That means someone is born with a tendency or predisposition for the brain to have certain structures or levels of hormones and neurotransmitters that create unique combinations of functions or malfunctions in the thoughts and emotions.
- Environmental impacts in a person’s life, such as a physical, social or emotional injury, or a severe trauma or accumulations of trauma, trigger the vulnerability. This could be anything from a loss of a parent at a crucial developmental stage, to a concussion, to drug and alcohol use, to war or rape or any other trauma, including surgeries, witnessing natural disasters, etc.
- Individual hardiness and choice. The response of the individual that arises from their own personal choice combined with the core values they formed in their growth and development in their particular family and social situation combines with the other two factors to create the “break” in cognitive and emotional brain functioning that manifests as a mental illness.
It is like a three-legged stool: a person can sit solidly on a stool as long as all three legs are working and strong. If one leg breaks a great deal of effort must be made to keep balance. If two legs break it takes even more effort to stay balanced. If all three legs break the person sitting on that stool will hit the ground. If all three factors I listed above occur in a person’s life, that is when the manifestation of the illness will break through, creating serious problems for that person, their family, and their community.
The appropriate response to someone who has fallen on the ground because the stool they were on has broken legs is to give them helpful attention, not to kick them or criticize them for falling on the ground. It NEVER helps to criticize or condemn someone who has a mental illness. Humans need to be helpful to each other. We need each other. Our worth and value as human beings expands when the strongest among us gather together to help and support the neediest ones among us.
So today, think about what your mental health means to you and consider what you can do to strengthen your thinking, feeling, social self, and then consider what you can do to help another human being keep their balance. Sometimes the best help we give ourselves is the help we offer someone else.
We all need support, especially if the legs on our stool are getting a bit wobbly!
Annie Wenger-Nabigon, MSW, RSW
Pathlight@OntarioNewsNorth.com
ANNIE RECOMMENDS:
- The Hollow Tree by Herb Nabigon
- EldersTeachings.blogspot.com
- Pathlight: Journey to a Good Life archives
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*Health themed columns found on OntarioNewsNorth.com provide general information about medical conditions and treatments. The information is not advice, and should not be treated as such. If you have any specific questions about any mental health or other medical matter, please consult your family physician, primary health care team or other professional healthcare provider.
Opinions and information contained in any column on OntarioNewsNorth.com are not intended to replace medical advice from your doctor or other professional health care provider. If you feel you are suffering from a mental or physical health issue, you should seek medical attention immediately. The information shared in this column or anywhere on OntarioNewsNorth.com does not constitute medical advice nor should any person delay seeking, disregard or discontinue medical treatment because of information contained in PATHLIGHT: Journey to a Good Life or on OntarioNewsNorth.com.
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