When Someone You Love is Hurting
As you have probably have heard by now Rick Warren’s son committed suicide this weekend. Warren is the author of The Purpose Driven Life and the minister of Saddleback Church in California. His son was 27 years old.
While I don’t know the Warrens personally my heart aches for them during this tragedy. I have known other families who have battled mental illness and depression and it is a long, often lonely road.
When a child falls down and scrapes their knee we know what to do. When a child suffers from anxiety and depression kisses, hugs and bandaids simply aren’t enough.
Statistics on Mental Disorders in the U.S.
The National Institute of Mental Health is a good source of information and it has this to say about the number of people who suffer from mental illness;
Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.1 When applied to the 2004 U.S. Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people.2 Even though mental disorders are widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion — about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 — who suffer from a serious mental illness.1 In addition, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada.3 Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time. Nearly half (45 percent) of those with any mental disorder meet criteria for 2 or more disorders, with severity strongly related to comorbidity.1
These statistics represent people and each and every person who suffers from mental illness and depression has a family who suffers with them, or at least most of them do. Many of our nation’s homeless people are mentally ill and their families may not even know where they are. Still, when you think of how many people and families are affected by this disorder the numbers are truly staggering.
One thing that makes mental illness and depression different from other diseases is the social stigma that often accompanies the problem. People simply don’t like to talk about it.
There’s a commercial on television for an anti-depressant that says, “Depression hurts.” Yes it does. It hurts the person who suffers from it and the people who love that person.
Today I will be praying for the Warrens and for other families who daily must fight this dark gray cloud that hovers over them. In their honor let’s all try to do a random act of kindness today for someone who is down, and let’s say a prayer that we as a nation find a way to talk about this problem in a way that can help make progress in the battle against mental illness.
