From “Worth Fighting For: Finding Courage and Compassion When Cruelty Is Trending” by John Pavlovitz
During any given year in America, one in five adults (approximately 57.8 million people) experience mental illness – 10 million of these people finding their lives fundamentally impacted by their internal, invisible maladies. The personal toll of these diseases is almost incalculable: debilitating mood disorders, propensity toward addiction, susceptibility to physical illness, and regular feelings of isolation and hopelessness. More than forty-eight thousand people die here by suicide each year, with twenty-five attempts for each of these deaths. In any given moment, millions of people are fighting a battle in their own heads just to stay here.
This is all under normal circumstances – and these are not at all normal circumstances.