Mark was a freshman at the University of Colorado, thousands of miles away from his parents who lived in Connecticut. He was the younger sibling to his brother who was also attending college. He had never had any vast problem with the law except for a speeding ticket when he was in high school. Overall, Mark was a well-behaved college student. His parents, Diane and Chris, were a joyous couple throughout their marriage. Chris worked for a computer software company which required him to spend most of his time traveling. Due to this, Diane was a little more attached to her kids then he was. She was one of the first people to notice Mark slowly changing and becoming ill. Mark’s first peculiar behavior started near his college. He had chosen a place where he knew people would notice him bearing a microwave across the campus. He hurled the microwave straight at a glass window at a deli. After doing this, he ran to the salad bar inside the deli and dumped all the toppings and dressings to the floor. The unusual thing about this is that after the chaos he created, he patiently waited for the police to come and arrest him. Following the incident, his mother was contacted causing her and others to wonder whether he was being affected by the ‘college life’. What no one knew about Mark was that he heard voices inside his head that told him what to do, and that he was slowly becoming a victim to one of the many mental illnesses present in this world. Mental illnesses had not been recognized as a medical problem until the late 18th century. They are usually considered “familial disorders” because many people have gone through the experience before with a parent, sibling, or child. In this book, Mark was the only person in his fa... ... middle of paper ... ...essive was just someone who sat alone and talked to themselves in a psychiatric ward. Society categorizes this type of people as bipolar but no one truly understands the struggle they are going through until they are in their shoes. I would have never thought that finding help would be so difficult for a person. Like Diane in the story, I would have also thought the person was having a “phase” in their life. My family has no history of anyone having a mental illness. If this were to occur to any family member of mine “Manic Depression” would have been the last thing to cross their minds. My family would have ignored it and possibly even punished the person for their unexplainable behavior. Thanks to this book I have learned you can’t have your life for granted and that anyone, at any time in their life’s can become a victim to the mental illnesses in this world.
1. This book shows readers how those that are mentally ill think and helps others better understand the “why” of their behaviors.
It is hard to comprehend how and why people lose their sanity and become mad. I will address how the mind’s struggles caused by individual genes, stress and social-cultural influence affect the lives of Naomi, a 24-year-old college student with schizophrenia and Eric, a 27-year-old classical musician with severe depression. Their thoughts and behavior surprised me as this is my first time exposed to what these mental illnesses are. The relation between the mind and the body and the fact that the emotions affect the functioning of the body and vice versa explains the how and why a person become insane.
... Psychoses.” Criticism & Lacon. Eds. Patrick Colm Hogan and Lalita Pandit. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1990. 64–73.
When I first set out to propose a project, I wasn’t sure what topic I wanted to conquer. Therefore, I quickly jumped when the professor suggested reading the memoir, “Darkness Visible” by William Styron. I have enjoyed all the class readings so far, I even did my last project on another memoir, and thought that reading a fresh perspective regarding mental illness would be engaging and inspiring.
Mental illnesses are one of the most frightening medical conditions to fall upon someone, as there are not any ways of curing such things and end up changing who the effect one is as a person. Due to how devastating mental illnesses are, it not only affects the person directly but also all those around them in various ways. Miriam Toews’ shows how mental illness effect people differently in her novel The Flying Troutman, a story about a family stricken by a members mental illness and their journey of coping with it. She displays this idea through the four characters of Hattie, Min, Thebes, and Logan Troutman as they go through their daily routines and interactions with one another.
...e but that she is also sad and very lonely. Nevertheless, the scene at the end of the movie, showing Rebecca’s death, was inevitable that left me feeling empty, and empathetic towards Rebecca. However, from a clinical view, I am a bit insulted in how the media depicted her disorder as being inhumane and monstrous. On the same note, it disappointed me to see that many viewers would get a misguided impression of the people who suffer from bipolar disorder.
The actual causal factors are still not yet clear; there has been some suggestion that genetics could be a causal factor. There has been a major concern about this argument regarding the parents’ “responsibility” in causing the condition (Craig, Kwame, & Paul, 2008). Consequently, various families of those who suffer from psychosis have been blamed, stigmatized, negatively labeled and thus, have been left feeling hurt (Craig, Kwame, & Paul, 2008). Psychosis can also result into pervasive changes in the individual and...
Not all humans experience these life altering events in the same way. A combination of psychiatric and psychologic theories can be applied to the life of David Berkowitz form his violent experiences as a young adult to his neglect from mother figure throughout childhood. It can be said that a combination of these factors experienced throughout his life, led the Son of Sam killer to lash out his frustration on innocent victims in order to receive relief from a buildup of years of aggressive violent thoughts and
In the 15th century thoughts on the mentally ill were negative. Society thought if there were mentally ill people, in most cases they were always women. In those times mentally ill were identified as a “witch”. Insanity was believed to be caused by possession of the devil. In the 16th century people with psychological disorders were seen as dangerous. If there was a suspicion of having a disorder, they were kept locked up. In the 17th century mad and raging people behaved like animals they were supposed to be treated like animals. In the eyes of the law, mentally ill people lacked the capacity to reason. In the 18th century houses that were built separated the mentally ill with the poor and average people. Mentally ill were referred as lunatics. In the 19th and 20th century there were very few mental health specialist. The mentally ill were to be treated privately and in special facilities. This is how all the stigma started with mental
“I have found it to be seductively complicated, a distillation both of what is finest in our nature, and of what is most dangerous” (Jamison, 1995, p.5). In “An Unquiet Mind”, Kay Redfield Jameson takes the readers through her experience dealing with manic-depression. Kay was happy and well rounded during her childhood. She developed interest for poetry, school plays, science, and medicine, and was strongly encouraged by her parents. She was surrounded with good friends, a close-knit family, and great quantities of laughter. Kay’s sister, who was 13 months older, described her as “the fair haired one” in the family, whom friends and schoolwork came too easily.
The topic of mental illness is broad and here it will be spoken about to pass some small knowledge of major types of
Mental illness has long been perceived by the communities as a sign of weakness. Having a diagnosis of a mental illness causes patients and their family members to deal with several competing emotions, thoughts and feelings surrounding the diagnosis. This can be troubling to the family members leaving them with feelings of blame (Corrigan, Druss, & Perlick, 2014). Throughout this discussion board I will describe the benefits and barriers a family may encounter when caring for a mental health patient.
Mental illness, today we are surround by a broad array of types of mental illnesses and new discoveries in this field every day. Up till the mid 1800’s there was no speak of personality disorder, in fact there was only two type of mental illness recognized. Those two illnesses as defined by Dr. Sam Vaknin (2010), “”delirium” or “manial”- were depression (melancholy), psychoses, and delusions.” It was later in 1835 when J. C. Pritchard the British Physician working at Bristol Infirmary Hospital published his work titled “Treatise on Insanity and Other Disorder of the Mind” this opened the door to the world of personality disorder. There were many story and changes to his theories and mental illness and it was then when Henry Maudsley in 1885 put theses theories to work and applied to a patient. This form of mental illness has since grown into the many different types of personality disorder that we know today. Like the evolution of the illness itself there has been a significant change in the way this illness is diagnosed and treated.
Mental health illnesses, particularly depression and anxiety are viewed in a variety of different ways and there are lots of things that need to be considered when diagnosing and treating a possible mental health condition. This essay will look in detail about the history of diagnosing mental health illnesses and the stigma that is attached with a diagnosis, formulation and the biopsychosocial model and finally the use of prescription drugs.
An intelligent man, Rudolph Jr. had been mentally ill for quite possibly his entire life, something considered taboo by the island nation from which he drew his origins. He was unable to receive professional attention for his depression - in part due to insufficient resources, in part due to pride. The irony of the situation is thick: my father, a medical student and disciple of the sciences, refused to accept medical care. In April of my freshman year, this irony took its toll.