This week being OCD Awareness Week, I've been paying more attention than usual (if that's even possible) to how people view and talk about OCD and other mental health disorders. But what I discovered was a wider problem - a mentality that governs so many people that very few actually see it as an issue. And not everyone will think it is, but it's definitely important enough to raise.
The issue is this: the term "serious illness" has become synonymous in our society with "cancer". So great is the number of campaigns for awareness of cancer, funding for cancer research, new evidence showing that such and such a food, drink or pastime causes cancer and so on, that cancer has somehow become the only "real" illness in the eyes of the majority of people, all of whom would fervently deny holding such as view, simply because they don't realise that it's true.
That's not to say that cancer isn't a horrible illness; it tears families apart, causes months and even years of suffering to those affected, and the only available treatments kill just as many people as they save. I lost my grandad when I was eight to a brain haemhorrage caused by chemotherapy treatment for leukaemia, so I know just how much it sucks, and I think that it's a cause which absolutely deserves the funding and awareness that it gets. The problem is that other illnesses don't get the same. There are hundreds of illnesses out there that affect just as many people as cancer does, kill more people, last longer than cancer and have far fewer treatment options, but get a fraction of the attention because cancer gets it all. People diagnosed with debilitating illnesses like lupus, multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome are told to be relieved because "at least it's not cancer". There are several types of cancer that make a person a lot less ill than a person with one of these illnesses, but apparently the fact that it's cancer makes it inherently more devastating. If a person dies young, everyone will assume that they had cancer until told otherwise. Compare box office ratings from The Fault in our Stars to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and you know which film will come out on top.
What I suppose I'm trying to say is that, although I do want a cure for cancer to be found as soon as possible, I don't want the rest of the world to have to be put on hold until that happens.
