I got some unexpected gifts from seeing a billboard reminding me that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Today’s post is about those gifts and the challenge of appreciating the mental health challenges we each face with compassion and understanding.

I might not have paid attention, except it reminded me that my friend and co-author Joy Jones occasionally asks whether we might connect our book, A Marriage that Changed the World, to Mental Health Awareness Month (May), Recovery Month (September), or Alcohol Awareness Month (April).

I’m reminded as I write this how easy it is for me to acknowledge some of my mental health challenges and not others. While I wholeheartedly have embraced Twelve Step recovery and therapy to help me, I remain largely unaware of the broader range of help available.

Mental Health Awareness Month was begun in 1949 by Mental Health America.  Presidential proclamations supporting mental health awareness, begun by President Obama in 2013, have continued under multiple administrations.

The focus of the campaign includes increasing understanding of different forms of mental illness, the reality of living with these conditions, and ways to attain better mental health. Like in the case of addictions, education about mental health is intended to overcome the stigma and denial associated with mental illness in our culture.

A look at the warning signs developed by National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) makes evident the breadth of mental health challenges facing people today. The list includes excessive worry or fear, confused thinking, overuse of substances, thoughts of suicide, and avoiding friends and social activities.

A friend recently defined our times as plagued by a culture that fosters alienation, isolation, and fear. Our reliance on devices, our growing disdain for others’ beliefs, and rising rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide among young people all point to the need to increase mental health awareness.

Think about the movies or TV shows you have seen recently. What do they tell you about people and mental health? My wife Geraldine recently became interested in Anne with an E on Netflix. The series tells the story of Anne, an outspoken orphan girl with a wild imagination growing up in late 19th-century Prince Edward Island, Canada.

 The series is based on the 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

The writers and actors do an amazing job describing the emotions that accompany being “other” in a community where class and race dictate relationships and acceptance. Anne’s life is punctuated with flashbacks to physical and emotional abuse in her early years in an orphanage.  Even in a loving home, she continues to experience the wounds of trauma and rejection.

Fear and misunderstanding grip the parents of Anne’s schoolmates as they ridicule her for who she is and where she came from. They forbid their children to associate with Anne and reinforce her self-doubt.

Through friendship and acceptance, Anne slowly begins to believe she may be worthy of love and belonging.

The recent release of a PBS documentary on W. E. B. Du Bois also shows the mental health consequences of sustained racism in America. The treatment of African Americans through lynching, discrimination, and personal attacks takes a toll not only on those being oppressed but on the larger culture as well.

We each have our story of growing up and experiencing belonging — or not. We have stories about what was said to us and what we came to believe about ourselves. Movies, books, and theater remind us of the wide range of those experiences. We can choose either to make negative judgments, grow in fear, or move toward greater compassion.

Being more mindful of mental health this month has reminded me of the need to be open to the challenges I face and those faced by others.  Compassion, acceptance, and a willingness to seek help are part of the path toward greater mental health for all. We are seeing what denial, fear, and stigma can do. It’s time to change direction.