Lisa Paredes has a button on her desk at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, where she works as an account services consultant. The button says “Me Too”, a reference to the diagnosis Paredes received for anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder.
"I would always worry about things like people dying or something bad happening and I never put two and two together I had anxiety and then I asked my PCP about it and he said I was just an anxious person," Paredes said. After getting treatment for her conditions, Paredes is not embarrassed or afraid to talk about it.
She also wasn’t nervous about wearing that “Me Too” button again today as Excellus began its third annual campaign to bring awareness to and encourage conversations about mental illness. “I’m proud that I deal with stuff daily and I take care of myself. I’m proud to show support for everyone who suffers or knows someone who suffers.”
When it comes to expressing care and sympathy for mental illness, more than half of upstate New York adults think people generally do this. But only 46 percent of those who actually have a mental illness diagnosis believe that's true.
Excellus BlueCross BlueShield compiled a report on this so-called "empathy gap", by analyzing self-reported survey data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ann Griepp, M.D., Excellus' medical director for behavioral health management, isn't surprised by the findings. For one thing, she says people who are depressed often don't perceive that others are there for them.
"It's just part of being depressed that it's harder to see the joyful and positive things."
Dr. Griepp says people are generally kind hearted and well meaning, but they don’t always want to hear about others’ problems. She says this is amplified by the multi-tasking demands of modern life.
"We're distracted; we're divided. Empathy is really being present with the person, just being there. And that's hard to do. Our culture, it's just not trained to work that way."
Dana Frame is executive director at Compeer, an organization that recruits and trains adults to build supportive relationships with people who have mental health challenges.
She says in addition to seeking treatment from a mental health professional, people suffering from mental illness need someone to listen to them and to see the person beyond the illness.
"Sometimes it's hard to get someone to leave their apartment because they just don't feel comfortable. But if you can be a friend and take them to get coffee, you can open up a big world for them."
Frame says if someone gets the treatment they need there is a 90 percent chance that they will recover from their mental illness.
Compeer was one of several local mental health organizations that sent representatives to Excellus today to answer questions from workers who have been impacted by mental illness, either through their own diagnosis or that of a friend or family member.
Other organizations that took part in today’s event were the Mental Health Association, East House, and DePaul.
