Mental Illness Research Paper

Mental illness have been seen and treated as far back as 5000 B.C. In the beginning little was known about the actual cause of the illness, many in these ancient times believed that it was due to possession of demons. As civilization advanced knowledge of mental illness little by little was gained. Although the knowledge was no where as advanced has we have today, they believed that it was due to imbalances of blood, phlegm, bile and black bile. Even Today, people are still debating about mental illness and how they work and why. Mental illness is a broad term, mental illness refers to any mental health problems one may experience in their lifetime. “One in 25 Americans lived with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder,

Patients that were emitted to asylums, had little contact with family and treated horribly under the conditions of the asylums. In the early nineteenth century asylums were not equipped or properly understood what they were dealing with. As a result, the patients were abused, abandoned, treated like animals and undergone many unnecessary surgeries. The way they approached studying and treating was out of little knowledge, resulting in barbaric treatments in the

“In 1999 the U.S. Surgeon General labeled stigma as perhaps the biggest barrier to mental health care; this stigma manifests in a phenomenon known as social distancing, whereby people distance themselves from people with mental illness.”(Friedman, Michael, Dr. "The Stigma of Mental Illness Is Making Us Sicker." Psychology Today. N.p., 13 May 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.) Social distancing may result in experience social isolation or loneliness on the part of the person the are distancing may help heighten their