Illness

It’s October, which everyone knows means that shelves in shops, gas station countertops, and the decorative flag your grandmother hangs out of her front window will all be emblazoned with pink ribbons and the words “Support Breast Cancer” until November. I don’t want to shit on curing cancer here, but I’ve got something of a problem with the way we’re trying to go about it. 

First off there’s the fact that dedicating a whole month to the process of raising awareness is actually hugely counterproductive when it comes to actually making money to cure cancer. Because you can, in October and November, purchase batteries with pink ribbons printed on them and cookies that look like moustaches, and because you can shell out a dollar at the drug store for rubber bracelets that say things like “I heart boobies” and “Movember,” you’re not going to donate any money to any groups that actually cure cancer. People support awareness campaigns because it’s easy to be “more aware” than it is to make a donation and we, as humans, get an endorphin high from feeling like we have accomplished something without actually getting anything done.

After you’ve dealt with the problems of awareness-based rather than donation or researched campaigns you come to the question of where the money generated by these campaigns is going. Well, in the case of Breast Cancer Awareness it’s largely going to breast cancer, which is a good thing except that breast cancer is the third leading cause of death for women (and then only for women over fifty) coming in behind heart disease and lung cancer. Sure, there’s a Heart Health Awareness month, a Sudden Cardiac Event Awareness month, and so on, but can anyone tell me when they are? Without peeking? I didn’t think so. This might not seem like such a big deal except that because of Breast Cancer Awareness there’s a disproportionate amount of fear in young women that they’ll die of breast cancer. This leads young women to get unnessecary tests and, because they think they’re taking care of themselves by focusing on the biggest, scariest monster out there in the world of health, ignoring things like high cholesterol and high blood pressure right up until they start having a heart attack (the symptoms of which they’re misinformed of because popular media typically sees heart attacks as a men’s health issue and tends to only portray men’s heart attack symptoms.) 

The other place where money goes during Breast Cancer Awareness month is to the companies who partner with various pink ribbon organizations. Companies like Coca Cola and KFC and Avon, all of which either produce or promote products (or in the case of Avon, product ingredients) that have the potential to increase breast cancer risk. Yeah, that sounds sensible, right? Companies whose products increase breast cancer risk make a buttload of money by selling those same products in pink containers every October. Oh, and in case you didn’t read the Forbes article I linked up there, take note that actual cancer survivors have trouble fitting and finding support in to a lot of the pink ribbon events since the events are so positive, peppy, and full of we-can-beat-it spirit that people who have survived or who are fighting cancer bring down the party for the only-in-October crowd.

Okay, so I've bitched a lot about breast cancer and Breast Cancer Awareness - why? Because last week was Mental Illness Awareness Week and I had no idea. Which is pretty terrifying considering that suicide is the 4th leading cause of death for adults between 18 and 65, with approximately 40,000 deaths by suicide in the US each year, a number that in itself is widely considered underestimated since many suicides are reported as accidents or complications of accidents or drug overdoses. And that number doesn't take into account the rising number of deaths among schizophrenics, cardiac deaths in female anxiety sufferers, or all of the early deaths caused by complications of mental illnesses.

I was diagnosed with clinical depression, compulsive and anxiety disorders in 2004. I've been living with mental illness and all of the problems associated with it since I was 17 years old, and so have a lot of people I know.

School has just started back up at Cal Poly and there are hordes of students wearing pink bracelets and advocating mammograms (about 30 years too early for most college students) all while being surrounded by people who are at risk TODAY for all of the dangers of mental illness.

Breast cancer is terrible, and it kills too many people - we should work on fixing it, and we are researching cures and causes, which is a very good thing. But mental illness is largely unrecognized and stigmatized - after ally, you've probably never heard someone with breast cancer being told to "snap out of it" or "just get over it" or "grow up."

So my rant about breast cancer awareness isn't really about breast cancer, it's about mental health and our attitude toward it as a culture.

And it's a way for me to tell anyone out there who is coping quietly with mental illness that you're not alone, it's nothing to be ashamed of, and that seeking treatment isn't weakness - it's okay to ask for help.

Here are some links; be safe, and be kind to one another.

Suicide Prevention Wiki
.GOV Resources

Cheers,
Alli