A picture's worth a 1000 words

Following Jill Sadowsky's blog on mental health each day, I found it quite astounding to see a scan showing a healthy brain next to a brain with schizophrenia. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case - it couldn't be more true. When one has a broken leg and is in a plaster cast, there is no stigma attached, no embarrassment, an x-ray clearly shows the break, an understandable tangible explanation, not to mention a great opportunity for family and friends to write or draw something silly on a plaster cast. However, when an illness is neurological, and the outward signs are not as simple as a plaster cast on a broken bone, the fear of the unknown takes over, and this is where stigma maliciously slide's in. Thank goodness, slowly through changing times and great efforts to educate such as the tireless work of Jill Sadowsky and many others who are doing all they can to bring greater awareness to this problem, hopefully mental health will be given the same dignity afforded to other serious diseases. Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, dementia, schizophrenia to mention a few, are all neurological illnesses, and once you've seen a CT or MRI scan, being visual, one can plainly see the problem. There is no hocus pocus, nothing scary, and most definitely does not deserve the shame and stigma usually attached to mental health.  To illustrate the point, the pictures below plainly show the problematic area. The upper picture is of a normal healthy brain, and the lower one is of someone with Parkinson's disease. You can clearly see the loss of Dopamine in the Parkinson's diseased brain by the less blackened areas. As you may well know, April is Parkinson's Awareness Month, and you can play a part and show support by forwarding this blog or sharing it on your Face Book. Education, creating awareness and knowledge is empowerment, so lets liberate stigma and send it packing once and for all !