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,

or major depression.” (Aspa. "Mental Health Myths and Facts." Mental Health Myths and Facts | MentalHealth.gov. Department of Health and Human Services, 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.) Mental health problems affect each of us at some point in our life. Words such as crazy, stupid, and dangerous all have a negative impact on how people with the problems see themselves, causing problems for the individuals.
Ultimately, to understand mental illness one must look back to the nineteenth century mental illness was treated with electroshock therapy, skull drills, pills, and even exorcisms.They had no way of curing a mental illness or understanding what caused mental illness.

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

asylums.
Consequently, change was not seen until the late 1800, people began to realize that treating patients that had mental illness with kindness needed to be a priority. People began to move into action, creating movements, Phillipe Pinel and Wiliam Tuke greatly influenced the movement known as the Humanitarian Movement. After the involvement of these two men caused reforms and actions to better improve the conditions of the asylums. Many of the treatments administered throughout history have been wishful thinking or subjective effects and haven’t actually benefited those who have been treated. Even today’s treatments will be considered obsolete in the near future as we learn more about the knowledge of the brain.
In today's society the social stigma and discrimination of mental illness are in heavy affect, nine out of ten diagnosed with a mental illness say that the discrimination received from people has had a negative effect on their lives.

“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

symptoms.
Mental illness is thought to be caused by a complex interaction of hereditary and environmental factors. Mental illness cannot always be clearly spotted and differentiated from other normal disorders. Nevertheless, this can be seen with anxiety disorders, we all experience these symptoms at some point in our lives. Meanwhile, this leads to wrongly diagnosed cases. Therefore, we also see that mental illness represents the biggest economic burden of any health issue in the world. “Surprisingly, 450 million people worldwide who suffer from mental health conditions, the majority do not receive any form of care.”(Friedman, Michael, Dr. "The Stigma of Mental Illness Is Making Us Sicker." Psychology Today. N.p., 13 May 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.) However, young children and even adults refer to other with mental illness as crazy or weird, these terms help to enhance the stigma. When they ridicule people with mental illness, it causes them to isolate themselves from others and refuse to admit that there is a problem that needs to be fixed. “ Nearly nine out of ten people with mental health problems say that stigma and discrimination have a negative effect on their lives.”("Stigma and Discrimination." Mental Health Foundation. N.p., 30 Nov. 2015. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.)
To better get treat mental illness, we as human beings must come to the conclusion that we must not put stigmas on anyone. The fact that we label people hinder their ability to get the help they need. Ultimately, one also must deal with the caring of the mentally ill and upgrade our facility, also maintaining a stable budget. We can’t take away from the budget without creating a problem. Taking away from the facilities will cause more problems, the problems being the patients will become homeless creating more economic problems. These are some of the main ways to vanquish the stigma behind mental illness.