Naomi Ishisaka: Let my best friend's legacy be more honesty and compassion toward mental illness and addiction
Seattle TimesSep 14, 2020
The adage from
Since my friend and longtime community and arts leader
One way we can honor her legacy is to begin to break the silence and have a long overdue public conversation about the reality of mental illness and addiction, a conversation Rahwa started herself with her many public posts about her experiences and her work within the recovery community.
Of all the things I am proud of her for -- and there are so, so, many (
Even before the pandemic, the
For people of color, low-income people and essential workers -- often the same group of people -- the impacts are even worse, the DOH said. Those groups are experiencing some of the worst health and economic effects of the pandemic.
This dismal forecast isn't helped by the abrupt halt to many of the usual avenues for recovery support -- such as in-person groups -- due to COVID.
"What we know is that isolation is the biggest cause of the degradation of our disease," Wallace said. "Stigma is really what pushes that because the embarrassment of it oftentimes has us sitting at home alone, not talking about it, not admitting it, not being honest about it with those who care about us and love us."
He said that people in recovery internalize societal messages that if you are struggling with mental illness you are broken and if you are struggling with addiction you are a moral failure. Being in a community of people with the same lived experience helps to break those messages down, he said.
Yet COVID disrupted the crucial safety net Peer Seattle and many other organizations built. Due to the coronavirus, Peer Seattle had to shut its doors to in-person support group meetings and groups moved online.
"[Online vs. in person is] the difference between transactional and relational," Cunningham said. "Being able to regularly go to meetings is a very relational experience." People know and recognize you and can help lift you back up when needed, he said.
"The places where the disease thrives -- like liquor stores and cannabis shops -- are alive and well," Cunningham said. "The places where recovery can happen are shut down."
What would it take for us to change the conversation around mental illness and addiction? How could we begin to normalize caring for our mental health as we do physical health? How could we approach people who are struggling with compassion instead of judgment?
At
To combat that, Han said ACRS uses storytelling to teach clients and families that mental health and physical health should be treated the same. Just as you should not be discriminated against for having high blood pressure, you should not be treated poorly when you have mental illnesses either, she said.
In order to break the stigma around mental illness and addiction, "we need more brave Asian people or immigrants or people of color talking about their experience openly, honestly with people and encourage other people to talk about it," Han said.
The more we talk about it, the more we will understand that mental illness and addiction touch all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, and that stigma only makes the problem worse.
"If people were able to put their hand up and say, 'hey, I need some help' and we were more of a warm, welcoming society, I think a lot of changes could occur," Cunningham said.
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