Mental Disorders Essay

875 Words2 Pages

Mental Disorders: The Effects and Recovery In the area of study Behavioral Psychology many different subjects are explored from emotions to social influences on behavior to mental disorders. A very important piece of Behavioral Psychology that has its own chapter dedicated to exploring the subject is mental disorders. “A mental disorder is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning.” (http://www.nami.org) Many examples of different kinds of mental disorders and what exactly they are and how to treat them can be found on http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=By_Illness which is dedicated completely to mental disorders. This website is the perfect place for people who have acquaintances with a mental disorder or they themselves have a mental disorder and need to learn more about them. Specific Statistics Many Americans are uninformed about the unimaginably high number of people that are affected by mental disorders, and what happens to these individuals included in these statistics. NAMI states that one in four adults, which is about 61.5 million American adults, deal with a mental disorder in just one year alone, and about 20 percent of youth experience a severe mental disorder in one single year. The worst and most shocking part of these statistics is the amount of people with a mental disorder that go untreated. 60 percent of adults and 50 percent of youth with a disorder do not receive treatment to better them. Moral Model vs. Disease Model One major problem with America is that we tend to criminalize individuals that have a mental disorder, just as we do with people who have a drug addiction. We look at the moral model and assume that th... ... middle of paper ... ...e that much more interested in the topic because it is believed that due to my Grandma having depression it caused her to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at a fairly young age in adulthood. The amount of individuals who deal with depression each year is astonishing. The website states that approximately 25 million Americans will receive at least one major depression outbreak just this year and only half will receive treatment for this disorder. Leaving this disorder untreated can lead too much more negative effects just like my Grandma experienced. Many people believe that people who have mental disorders such as eating disorders, depression or anxiety are just weak and can easily fix the problem. I found out this is not true. Mental disorders need attention and treatment in order for the individuals with the disorder to bounce back and live a better life.

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