Mental illnesses are serious disorders of the brain. These illnesses can interfere with a person’s thinking, feeling, moods, ability to relate to others, and ability to live a normal healthy life. Just as heart disease is a disorder of the heart, so mental illnesses are disorders of the brain. These illnesses can affect persons of any race, religion, income, or age—even children. The illnesses can have very severe symptoms or milder ones, but all can interfere with the ordinary demands of life including work, home, school, family, leisure, even self-care.
Mental illnesses are not the result of personal weakness or lack of character, or poor upbringing, but they affect everyone, including the individual, his or her family, and society as a whole.
The good news is that these illnesses are treatable and great help can be found at Detroit East.
Substance abuse is an addiction to alcohol, or street or prescription drugs. In addition to those conditions that we traditionally classify as mental illnesses (such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, etc.) Detroit East also provides treatment and prevention services for substance abuse as a co-occurring disorder with mental illness.
For very helpful information about all mental illnesses, support, and treatment, please contact Mental Health America at www.mentalhealthamerica.net or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration at www.samhsa.gov. In addition, “A Resource Guide for Families Dealing with Mental Illness” is a very helpful publication and may be obtained online from www.michigan.gov/mdch → Mental Health and Substance Abuse → Mental Health and Developmental Disability → Publications and Resources.
About Mental Illness
