INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — October is National Depression and Mental Health Screening Month.
Eskenazi Health is combating symptoms that force you to lose contact with reality.
“The research consistently shows that people who get help earlier have better outcomes and we don’t want people to be suffering alone,” Bethany Leonhardt, a clinical psychologist at Eskenazi Health, said.
Eskenazi Health wants people struggling with the mental disorder pyschosis to know they’re not alone.
“Usually, they’re having internal experiences that are really confusing, sometimes really frightening and hard to explain to other people. They may look or hear things that people don’t hear, see things that people don’t heart. They might also have a hard time organizing their thoughts,” Leonhardt said.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, about 100,000 young people experience psychosis each year.
They say teens are at increased risk due to puberty.
“We’ve seen youth who experience their first episode of psychosis, so our main aim is to help them get back on track with their life and make sense of their experiences and to be supportive of their family,” the team leader of the Eskenazi Prevention & Addiction Recovery Center, Angela Rader Hogg, said.
They say there are several symptoms to watch for.
“Early warning signs might be some with withdrawals. They might not be engaging in typical activities that they were once passionate about. There might be difficult with school work,” Hogg said.
To make sure these individuals are getting the help they need Eskenazi is raising awareness through its resources such as case management and individual and group therapy.
“We want them to be able to have a place where they can talk about what’s going on with folks who understand and know how to help them with that,” Leonhardt said.
They also want people to know they should not be afraid to ask for help.
“We think that people can recover and we think that people can make sense of what’s going on in their lives and live full and meaningful lives. That’s why it’s important to engage someone early and people able link them to care,” Hogg said.
To find more information about these resources you can visit the Eskenazi Health webpage for mental health services.