Rang Theres to thank her for the party yesterday savoured the bright moments of yesterday's party.
Shortly after that a long chat with a friend. Seems that all sorts of skeletons have been coming out of her proverbial family cupboard. It turns out that her ex and father of her child has two children that he has kept secret. He and his present wife, who apparently drinks too much and mixes alcohol with meds , had got into a fight. He'd hit her, which resulted in her being taken to hospital all battered and bruised but nothing life threatening and his being detained in prison. This will mean that he'll lose his job and will presumably get help with his anger management- Maybe a blessing in disguise. It's disturbing to think that things really have to come to a head before any action is taken.
I've been hearing a lot about the mental health problems of friends and acquaintances recently. Young people 20 something being diagnosed with schizophrenia and as mano - depressive. I started to wonder if this was mainly a Scandinavian problem. After a quick google I found that WHO - world health organisation had this to say:
Mental, neurological and behavioural disorders are common to all countries and cause immense suffering. People with these disorders are often subjected to social isolation, poor quality of life and increased mortality. These disorders are the cause of staggering economic and social costs.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are affected by mental, behavioural, neurological and substance use disorders. For example, estimates made by WHO in 2002 showed that 154 million people globally suffer from depression and 25 million people from schizophrenia; 91 million people are affected by alcohol use disorders and 15 million by drug use disorders. A recently published WHO report shows that 50 million people suffer from epilepsy and 24 million from Alzheimer and other dementias.
In addition to the above figures, many other disorders affect the nervous system or produce neurological sequelae. Projections based on a WHO study show that worldwide in 2005, 326 million people suffer from migraine; 61 million from cerebrovascular diseases; 18 million from neuroinfections or neurological sequelae of infections. Number of people with neurological sequelae of nutritional disorders and neuropathies (352 million) and neurological sequelae secondary to injuries (170 million) also add substantially to the above burden.
About 877,000 people die by suicide every year.
One in four patients visiting a health service has at least one mental, neurological or behavioural disorder but most of these disorders are neither diagnosed nor treated.
Mental illnesses affect and are affected by chronic conditions such as cancer, heart and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and HIV/AIDS. Untreated, they bring about unhealthy behaviour, non-compliance with prescribed medical regimens, diminished immune functioning, and poor prognosis.
Cost-effective treatments exist for most disorders and, if correctly applied, could enable most of those affected to become functioning members of society.
Barriers to effective treatment of mental illness include lack of recognition of the seriousness of mental illness and lack of understanding about the benefits of services. Policy makers, insurance companies, health and labour policies, and the public at large – all discriminate between physical and mental problems.
Most middle and low-income countries devote less than 1% of their health expenditure to mental health. Consequently mental health policies, legislation, community care facilities, and treatments for people with mental illness are not given the priority they deserve.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/en/
It's about time the whole issue of mental health was examined in the clear light of day.It needs a good old seeing to. Something must be done if we are to put and end tp the consequences of volence, bullying and other forms of abuse a lot of which stem from mental ill- health and suffering. Treatment for the abused and abusers is essential for a healthy society.
Night night Blogland
And so it was, that High Priestess , Wise Woman, Homeopath , Herbalist, Therés , now retired, gathered her inner circle of friends al of whom had been her patients at one time, at her beautiful candlelit home by the great water , in the Scandinavian town known as Stockholm where she lives with her Naprapath hubby Bo. 
