By Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Joseph Mastrando is a mental health professional with years of experience behind him. In addition to serving as the Director of Better Health Wellness, LLC, he has also been an advocate for the industry in general for over 25 years.
After personally witnessing a close family member struggle with the issue of addiction, he realized what an important matter this really was. It was an experience that changed the course of his life, inspiring him to become a mental health professional so that he could help as many people as possible avoid the issues that had so personally affected him. He opened his own independent addiction recovery program called Clean Days Sober Nights, among other accomplishments.
All of this is, in large part, why this is a topic that is so near and dear to his heart. Joseph Mastrando believes that every individual is unique and that there is no “one right path” to recovery. That’s why he helps to shed as much light as possible on this process in a larger sense – in large part to provide the most holistic recovery experience possible to all that he is capable of assisting.
Why Mental Health Awareness Matters
For Joseph Mastrando, a big part of the reason why mental health awareness is so important is that it helps to remove part of the stigma that surrounds the topic in the first place.
Far too often, people who don’t suffer from mental health issues simply don’t understand it. They think it is as simple as a “problem to be solved,” and anyone who still struggles in this area simply hasn’t found “the right solution” yet. Especially among those who are a part of older generations, many see it as something akin to a temporary illness like the flu virus. They believe that if you just “wait it out,” it will be over. They don’t see it for what it really is – a legitimate condition in every sense of the term.
In the vast majority of all cases, this isn’t a problem that can be definitively solved so much as it is something that they will have to learn to manage for the rest of their lives.
That simple change in perception can mean all the difference in the world, particularly for those who are attempting to help people in their lives who may be suffering from mental health issues. It can help them identify the signs that may indicate someone might need help, or at the very least can help educate them about how to act in those situations. The more education that people have – both in terms of those who are impacted by mental health issues and those around them – the better chance they have at dealing with those problems.
The fact of the matter is that according to one recent study, approximately 48 million people have some type of anxiety disorder. Roughly 21 million people suffer from major depression, and another 9 million people have a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. These numbers are significant because they underline that mental health is not a topic to be avoided. In the opinion of Joseph Mastrando, it is something that needs to be addressed head-on.
The sooner people understand that this is an issue impacting a higher volume of citizens than most realize, the sooner we as a society can start having an honest discussion. Removing the stigma associated with mental health is one of the keys to moving forward – which doesn’t just benefit those who have been affected, but it also benefits society in general as well.
