«My name is Antonio and I’m crazy
I was born in ’54 and I’ve lived here since I was a child
I thought I was speaking with the devil
That’s how they locked me away in an asylum for forty years
I’m writing you this letter because I don’t know how to speak
Forgive the handwriting of a first-grader
And I am amazed if I still feel an emotion
But the fault lies with the hand that never stops trembling
I am like a piano with a broken key
The dissonant agreement of an orchestra of drunks
Day and night look alike
In the little light piercing the opaque windows
I still wet myself because I’m afraid
To healthy society, we have always been trash
It smells of piss and sawdust
This is mental illness and there is no cure».
These verses, harsh and delicate at the same time, from Simone Cristicchi’s song, I Will Give You a Rose, perfectly introduce the theme and purpose of World Mental Health Day 2024, celebrated next October 10.
As we know, mental health is becoming an increasingly urgent issue in our ever-connected world, which nevertheless leaves us increasingly isolated; always active, yet imposing inhuman rhythms and producing extremely high levels of stress.
The rate of people affected by mental disorders has increased globally; young people growing up with a profound sense of emptiness and without strong points of reference are often victims of this, with devastating effects in family and social settings.
Stigmatization and discrimination against mental illness continue to be obstacles to inclusion and access to adequate care. However, it is well established that, with the right social and institutional structures, preventing mental disorders and ensuring the well-being of every citizen of the world are achievable goals.
Mental health at work
World Mental Health Day, established in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health and recognized by the World Health Organization, promotes awareness and mental defense against social stigma. Raising awareness of this issue and coordinating and directing initiatives in the field as much as possible are the goals of this day, in the belief that reducing anxiety and mental disorders and combating feelings of isolation and marginalization are important for preserving that well-being which is our most important social capital.
This year marks the 76th anniversary and the chosen theme is “It is time to prioritise mental health in the workplace”(It is time to prioritise mental health in the workplace). To mark World Mental Health Day, following a proposal and under the coordination of the Italian Society of Psychiatry, several representative monuments and buildings in Italy will be lit up in green.
Saint John of God: “God’s madman”
The figure of Saint John of God, founder of the Fatebenefratelli, is closely connected to this Day: his is a wandering and uncertain life, until he arrives in Granada and opens a small bookshop. One day he listens to Saint John of Ávila speak in public. He is so shaken by the sermon that he abandons his shop, walks barefoot and repeats to everyone: «Do good, brothers, to yourselves, for the love of God». His behavior becomes so erratic that he is considered insane and confined to an asylum. John suffers atrocious abuse, in an era when people with mental illnesses were treated brutally: they were stripped, bound hand and foot, and flogged with a double-cord whip, in the belief that pain would make them lose their ferocity and help them return to “normality”.
John experiences this himself and sees it being done to the other patients, whom he immediately regards as his brothers. He does not hesitate to defend them, reprimanding the nurses for their negligence and accusing them of betraying their own mission because, by using violence, they were not giving the patients what they needed for their well-being.
However, incredibly but truly, his stay in hospital is for John a genuine moment of grace, which finally allows him to clearly discover what God was calling him to do.
When he is discharged, he remains marked by this cruel experience, so much so that he dedicates his life to lovingly caring for the sick, especially those with mental illnesses, and founding hospitals that, inspired by the phrase he repeats when begging for the poor, come to be called “Fatebenefratelli”.
Mental illness is a reality that must not be denied, but addressed with the tools of scientific expertise and understanding, while we all strive to help restore a more human-centred world that notices others, their needs and their difficulties.
Let us pray for this and commit ourselves to it; we too can make a difference, each in our own small way!
