DrRoberta Here’s the case for having an annual mental.
Did you hear about the college student who killed the professor who flunked him? How about the office worker who brought a gun to work and shot up the place, or the engineer who went on a rampage in the government building where he worked? And, of course, sadly, we all know about school shooters.
On close examination, it seems that all these people had signs of deteriorating mental health. For the previous few weeks they were not their regular selves. Their families and their co-workers noticed a change in behavior. Thus, their aberrant acts were probably predictable and possibly preventable. Alas, a routine mental checkup was simply not on their agenda.
Students aren’t admitted to high school without a physical. New company employees aren’t hired without physicals, including drug tests. We monitor our blood pressure and we recite our cholesterol levels. We know about Pap tests and prostate tests. We go to the dentist and to the optometrist, too. We immunize our children, and even our pets. Why don’t we require an annual mental? Not a bad idea considering that most mental illnesses come on gradually, with plenty of warning signals.
Let’s establish the ritual of an annual mental which, just like an annual physical, could detect signs before the emergence of a full-blown disease. It’s always easier to head off or treat an illness when it’s in its nascent stage.
The social costs of untreated mental illness are beyond calculation in real dollars (billions) and in real life (suffering, chaos, family breakdown, death by murder, death by suicide.)
Research indicates that the sooner a flawed brain gets properly treated the more likely it will get well and remain well. We must not be reluctant to fix the brain. Once, there was reluctance to tamper with the heart, the seat of passion. Today cardiac bypass surgeries are routine. Once, there was reluctance to tamper with the eyes, the windows to the soul. Today contacts can change your eye color, and corneas get transplanted. When behavior indicates that the brain has gone out of kilter, it must quickly be straightened out. Nowadays there is psychiatric medication that can accomplish in two months what previously took two years –if you were lucky. If talk therapy is recommended don’t fear years of analysis on the couch, three times each week. That’s passé.
Today’s psychotherapy is quick and directed at your present behavior, not your past.
Mental health professionals can easily, and rapidly, perform assessments of emotional health. Just as a family doctor may occasionally refer a patient to a dermatologist, orthopedist, or cardiologist, so a mental health evaluator may sometimes refer a patient to a neurologist, psychiatrist, counselor, psychopharmacologist, or cognitive therapist. Most times there will be no need for further investigation or treatment.
When you go for your annual mental you’ll be establishing a relationship with a mental health professional and thus you’ll be able to move quickly in a psychiatric emergency. If you, or a neighbor, family member, or colleague suddenly presents with baffling symptoms you’ll know just where to turn for guidance and direction.
It’s a good idea to have your head examined!
