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People understanding mental illness essay
People understanding mental illness essay
Understanding mental illness essay
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Growing up I was always passionate about being an agent of change. I recognized that in order to make an informed decision and work towards change it is important to assess the environment in which the individual(s) live, their support system, economic status, race, medical history, mental status and/or substance use history. The movie, “Pack Up Your Sorrows” was very powerful and inspiring. The main character in the movie was Meg Hutchinson. The movie displayed the life story of Meg’s journey to recovery living with a mental illness. She is a talented and famous Folk singer and writer who traveled across the country on tours doing what she enjoyed. The movie also featured interviews with psychologists, authors, teachers and neuroscientists who are all working towards impacting the field positively. During several conversations with peers, I repeatedly stated my interest in finding out how the brain of individuals living with a mental illness functions and also how challenging it is for the individual(s) to operate. The movie provided me with such an experience. Shame, pride, and an unwillingness to accept having a mental illness or asking for and/ or accepting help are some factors …show more content…
It highlighted her thought process, feelings, and view of life, stressors and strengths. Resilience, family support, recognizing, accepting that help is needed and compliance with treatment were imperative in Meg's recovery. Meg is rather talented and found fame through utilizing her strengths; writing and singing. Her first major onset of depression came at the age of 19 years. Never in her life did she feel the way she felt. It was a unique experience for her. She was later diagnosed with Bipolar II in her late twenties. Living with this disease she describes is not easy and requires hard work to remain healthy. I was amazed by her story and journey. Meg was able to face and challenge her biggest
During the mid-1900`s, mental illnesses were rarely discussed in mainstream media due to negative stigma surrounding mental illnesses. As a result, characters in film rarely had mental disorders because of the directors` worries of audiences` reactions to how the illnesses were portrayed. Director, Edward Dmytryk, however, attempted to diminish the stigma through his film Raintree County (1957) with Susanna Drake Shawnessy`s mental instability. Elizabeth Taylor`s portrayal of Susanna, however, heightened the stigma surrounding mental illness as Susanna constantly acted immature and childlike.
Although Susanna Kaysen’s rebellious and self-harming actions of coping with her psychosis are viewed by some critics as pushing the boundary of sanity, many people have a form of a “borderline personality” that they must accept and individually work towards understanding in order to release themselves from the confines of their disorder. Kaysen commits to a journey of self-discovery, which ultimately allows her to accept and understand herself and her psychosis.
She chose to not let this injury define who she is. She had plenty of support from her friends and family that was comforting for her. She deals with some depression in the beginning of losing her leg, but finally finds her ground her new life and starts to love it. The ending was definitely worth the wait. It was nice to experience her get a happy ending after going through the tough journey with her. I gained the knowledge of knowing that everybody has a different story to them, and you find out who you really are in your most trying
...l of her journey, she always tried, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, but she did try to move on. She also learned forgiveness, to others and to herself. Her story is incredibly insightful to the realities of the world. Her problems were none too out of the ordinary; death, infidelity, drugs, scandal- at least one of those is in everyone's life. She admits, “I’d done a lot of dumb and dangerous things in my life…”(Strayed 94). The way she handled certain situations was not the best, but that is what made her life a learning process and more importantly that is the story that has inspired so many lives today.
In her life, she has overcame obstacles that most people in life most likely would not overcome such as rape, abuse, and even losing her daughter on Christmas Day. Despite of all she has gone through in her life, she is determine to help people to their lives better.
The story that impacted me the most was Mindy’s story about her diagnosis of schizophrenia. It was upsetting to learn about how one misdiagnosis can completely change a person’s life. France’s response to the misdiagnosis was insightful. He stated, “She taught me always to look for what’s fundamentally normal in people, not just what appears to be sick”(p. 247). I felt this quote was powerful because we often forget to treat people like human beings. Our culture tends to label people if they do not appear normal and that affects how a person values themselves. We should be conscious of the way we talk about individuals suffering with a diagnosis and treat them as a
Precious is an African-American female who is currently impregnated by her biological father for the second time. She is sixteen years of age and can neither read nor write. She constantly suffers pitfalls at her young age. She is heavily obsessed and is subjected to abuse at the hands of her vicious, dysfunctional, abusive, and unemployed mother. With the proper support from an engaged principal, teacher, and social worker, Precious’s life turns into the positive.
Since the birth of movies, Hollywood has strived to delve into the human experience and present certain aspects of life to the general population. Mental disorders are just one of many topics that are often explored for use in the media. The film A Beautiful Mind focuses specifically on paranoid schizophrenia, and follows protagonist John Nash’s life as he lives with the disorder. The film details Nash’s presymptomatic life at Princeton University, follows him through the early stages of the disorder, and continues as the symptoms begin to overrun his life. Luckily for Nash, his disorder is eventually clinically diagnosed and he is treated. The movie not only shares the tale of Nash’s life, but also shares with audiences a lesson about the
There is a widely accepted stigma surrounding those suffering from mental illness. This narrow and often grossly misinformed perspective or single story has negatively affected countless lives and when left unchecked, can bring about a great deal of harm. Single stories and stereotypes are dangerous. A young woman by the name of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has both experienced them and participated in them. In her 2009 TED talk, Adichie discusses how the single story perspective negatively
For the overall mental health culture, they way people perceive mental health needs to change in order to alleviate the stigma attached to the topic. As I read and listened to the film, movies play a large part in inflicting the fear that so many people have towards mentally ill people. Another example is news media and how they usually assume that the school shooter , mass muder, rapist or pedifile is mentally ill person causing harm to others. Besides, do you really need to be mentally ill to cause harm to others? I personally don’t believe that and I think anymore is capable of inflicting
It tells the story of a person, family and community in which individuals suffer from mental disorders much the same way as people do in the real world. Not only did I find this movie quite accurate concerning mental illness but I also established some important messages concerning mental illness in today’s society. The film takes into account that mental illness is a part of society and overall has a positive outlook on it. Their illnesses don 't define their identities nor are they even the main point of the story. In coming together, the characters find the mutual support that enables them to approach their struggles and redirect their lives in a more positive direction. To some degree, this film addresses stigma and the fact that persons with mental illness should be allowed to participate in society over being kept in a hospital, in other words, it gives
People with schizophrenia are inaccurately portrayed in the offensive and stigmatizing film Me, Myself & Irene. The only way to prevent the stigma associated with these films is to get involved. Watch your own attitudes and behaviors and educate yourself and others as much as you can. Comedy and fantasy have their place in film but not at the expense of children and adults who struggle daily to overcome mental illness. A comedy that similarly made fun of cancer or AIDS would never be tolerated. The entertainment industry must learn that this exploitation of mental illness is unacceptable. Unfortunately, the entertainment industry continues to present people with mental illness in a negative light. They have wide ranging consequences for the lives of those with mental illness and for the ways people act towards others with psychiatric disorders.
Why is there a cloud of judgment and misunderstanding still surrounding the subject? People with a mental disorder or with a history of mental health issues are continually ostracized by society. This results in it being more difficult than it already is for the mentally ill to admit their symptoms to others and to seek treatment. To towards understanding mental illness is to finally lift the stigma, and to finally let sufferers feel safe and accepted within today’s society. There are many ways in which the mentally ill are degraded and shamed.
This film challenged my previous thoughts of bipolar disorder and took me into personal accounts of people suffering from this horrible disorder. I learned that individuals that are diagnosed with bipolar disorder are not the same and have different experiences of how the disease affected their life. I was honestly shocked at the fact that a disease in the brain can make you go into a manic state of mind and then fall into a deep depression. One of the most eye opening parts in the film was when Cheri was going to a client’s house and had to look into the mirror before she went in and told herself to put on her game face and transform into a chipper, perky version of herself because she was feeling down. This made me realize that people around you can be suffering from depression or other mental diseases around you and you can be completely unaware because the symptoms can be
Shutter Island, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a frightening film full of twists and turns that presents a highly dramatized depiction of mental health and psychiatric treatment. It fulfills a checklist of the classic elements of Hollywood’s psychological horror genre: foreboding asylums, psychiatric experimentation, dangerous mental afflictions, multiple personalities, intense hallucinations, and even lobotomy. The media’s portrayal of psychiatric disorders and treatment is an important contributor to the continued stigmatization of mental illness in our society. This paper will analyze which aspects of Shutter Island portray