Mental health issues are not treated as well as they could be. People that have mental health issues are told and expected to “try harder” or “change their mindset” in order to feel better about their situation. Nobody would say that to someone who had just broken their arm.
Mental illness affects the human body just as much as physical illness does, if not more. We should treat all forms of mental illness like they are physical illnesses. Positive mental health helps a person realize their full potential, cope with stress, work productively, and make meaningful contributions to the world around them. Those that have positive mental health have better working immune systems, positive attitudes, and good physical health. Those that suffer with
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Those that aren't affected by a mental health issue could become uncomfortable talking about another person's feelings, the person affected could feel like admitting they have a problem is a personal issue, and parents could believe that a child's mental illness developed because of their failures as a parent.
The case is that mental illness can affect just as much of a person's body as a physical ailment. Depression, for example, can make a person feel unmotivated, worthless, and as if they have nothing to look forward to in their day. Depression can reduce a perfectly happy person to someone who lays in bed all day because they don't have the motivation to do anything. Social anxiety makes it difficult for a person to interact with others, regardless of if it's handing a cashier money, performing in a group, or having a conversation via text or in person. It's impossible to tell the other person's reaction, and the fear of being judged is what keeps the person paralyzed by fear. It’s no different than if someone had hand tremors and couldn’t hand their money to the cashier at the register. The difference herein lies in the societal perception of both physical and mental illness. Society has a different kind of outlook on physical illness, a much more understanding one. However, not all mental illnesses are obvious and clear to
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"One of the most widely believed and most damaging myths is that mental illness is not a physical disease. Fewer than half of individuals affected by depression seek treatment due to a variety of misconceptions. Many patients believe that depression is a normal part of life...or a disease they can treat themselves (Szczerba).” If more people were aware of the fact that depression isn't normal, or a part of life, they would talk more with medical professionals about them. Mental issues aren't just feelings, they are chemical imbalances in the brain that affect the quality of
In final analysis, mental illness is not being taken as seriously as an disease or a
The stigma and negative associations that go with mental illness have been around as long as mental illness itself has been recognized. As society has advanced, little changes have been made to the deep-rooted ideas that go along with psychological disorders. It is clearly seen throughout history that people with mental illness are discriminated against, cast out of society, and deemed “damaged”. They are unable to escape the stigma that goes along with their illness, and are often left to defend themselves in a world that is not accepting of differences in people. Society needs to realize what it is doing, and how it is affecting these people who are affected with mental illness. If we continue to not help them, and to foster their illness, it will only get worse.
Mental illness affects one in four adults every year ("NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness | Mental Illnesses"). Mental illness effects thousands who may not even be aware of it. Many who are aware do not receive treatment until something bad happens in result of not receiving treatment. These illnesses affect all aspects of the person’s life. They often do things without the knowledge of what they are doing. Many people who do have these illness commit crimes without the knowledge of the fact that they are doing wrong. People often do not believe that having a mental illness gives people the right to commit a crime, and it doesn’t. It merely suggests that the person who committed said crime was not aware of their actions therefore cannot be held accountable for the wrongdoing. Families of the victims usually are oblivious to what mental illness is and own they do end up educating themselves wondering why these people never got help so their loved one may have been spared. Mentally ill persons should be exempt from the death penalty because they are in a questionable state of mind, they will become low risk if they receive treatment, and the families of the victims do not want them to receive the death penalty.
There are so many types of mental illnesses that affect people every day. When some people think of mental illnesses they think of the ones that would cause people to have physical symptoms as well, but that’s untrue, there are many more that you would never know anyone has if you were to see them on the street. As defined by the 2008 encyclopedia “a mental illness is any disease of the mind or brain that seriously affects a person’s ability or behavior. Symptoms of a mental illness may include extreme moods, such as excessive sadness or anxiety, or a decreased ability to think clearly or remember well.” A mentally ill person has severe symptoms that damage the person’s ability to function in everyday activities and situations. Every nation and every economic level can be affected by a mental illness. In the United States alone about 3% of the population has severe mental illness and to add to that number about 40% of people will experience a type of mental illness at least once in their lives. Some cases of mental illnesses can go away on their own, but some cases are so severe that they require professional treatment. There is so much more available to help people recover from their symptoms than in the past.
This is widely due to mass media creating a stigma for the mentally ill people that most of the general population tend to believe in the United States. I will begin with what I remember of my experience of learning I have mental health illness. I remember suffering heavily through my early teens to my twenties with depression. I had tried at that time just about every type of depression medication available and none of them worked for me. It wasn't until I was in my twenties that my depression just kind of went away.
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.
Mental health is just as important as physical health in a person’s life. Mental health is critical to a person’s well-being, their ability to live a productive life and to keep a healthy family and interpersonal relationships. Mental health does not just affect the mind it also affects people’s physical health. Some physical health diseases can cause a mental health disorder and vice versa. Mental health disorders are associated with the occurrence, development, and outcome of some of the today’s most chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. When people go untreated from a mental health disorder are at a higher risk for many unhealthy behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, violent behavior, and suicide.
Since it has become more understood better treatment plans have been created. There a various therapies and medications that can help manage mental health. However, there is an estimated 50 million people in America that has a mental disorder(s) and sadly only about 10 million will receive mental healthcare. Why is this? This happens simply because mental illness does not care who you are and how much money you do or do not have in the bank. Mental illnesses can effect anyone and it can be anyone of the numerous different psychological disorders. When mental illness effects a person it disrupts their whole life, this would include their daily living as well as effecting how preform at work. Take for instance, if they work a production job it can cause them not to make production. If they cannot function well enough to work at their required performance, then this could and probably would lead into them being fired from their job. Without a job they would not only lose their income but they would also have say bye-bye to their insurance plan as well. This would leave them without and mental healthcare. Did you know that if 50% of those with schizophrenia, 25% of those with anxiety disorders, 33% of those with depression are currently receiving successful treatment and the likely success rate will be around 80 to 90%? A number of people with
In the past, mental illness was taboo to discuss and there was fear surrounding the topic. However, remarkable strides have been made in figuring out the causes of the disease and weighing the most effective treatments specialized for each specific disease. According to the American Psychotic Association, “A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.”
People with a mental illness are often feared and rejected by society. This occurs because of the stigma of mental illness. The stigma of mental illness causes the perception of individuals with mental illnesses to be viewed as being dangerous and insane. They are viewed and treated in a negative way. They are almost seen as being less of a human. The stigma affects the individual with a mental illness in such a cruel way. The individual cannot even seek help without the fear of being stigmatized by their loved ones or the general public. The stigma even leads to some individuals developing self-stigma. This means having a negative perception of one’s self, such as viewing one’s self as being dangerous. The worst part is that the effects of
Those are the some reason: “Frequent medical appointments, absences from work, medication side-effects, and difficulty communicating or interacting with others, trouble concentrating, problems following a particular schedule, stigma, prejudice and discrimination” The video calls what is So Funny about Mental Illness? Presented by Ruby Wax on TED talks said that “How come every other organ in your body can get sick and you get sympathy, except the brain?” When the person coughs or is bleeding everybody should pay attention and help them, but when they cannot see the illness or when it is about feeling people and society can be very insensitive and see it as a weakness or stigma. Not to mention, the stigma not only goes to the person with mental illness but also to their family members.
Due to the stigma of mental health, the treatment people need get delayed as everyone (sometimes the patient) wants to be socially acceptable and in the world’s current society having a mental illness is not socially acceptable thing to have. The stigma of mental health many times causes people try to hide if they have a problem and find other ways to deal with the problem, examples are self medication with drinking, smoking, and suicide. By people self-medicating instead of getting treatment they need, they cause more problems for the people around them. They can become hazards to society, hurting people or themselves, which could cause people to have more unpleasant stigma towards mental illness as they only see the bad things that happen like school shooting and never see anything on the good side like better treatment options for people so less school shootings
Care for bodily injuries is advancing greatly to the point where people could get new limbs if they were previously lost or unusable. The same cannot be said about mental care. Research and care for mental health has been diminished greatly in the past number of years and is still being worked at so its benefits would not be received by those who need it to improve their lives. If the world treated physical illness the same way they treat mental illness, then there would be change to improve how physical health is treated. Mental health should be taken seriously by the public to help those in suffering now and in the
Our society today does not value our mental health like it should. If society would only pay as much attention to mental health, they would be better off in the long run. Think about an athlete playing a sport, they certainly understand how important physical health is. When a baseball player injures his knee, he is out and waits until it heals. But like many people, mental health is overlooked. Most teenagers do not realize that the many things like stress or eating disorders are coming from a poor mental state. They think that if they just ignore it they will snap out of it, this is not true and many times this kind of thinking will only make it worse (Change Your Mind). Mental health is not seen as important as physical health due to misconceptions and stigma behind mental health patients. By increasing the importance of personal mental health, people can reduce issues associated with mental health problems and raise awareness for people who suffer from mental health issues.
The dictionary definition of mental health is, “psychological well-being and satisfactory adjustment to society and to the ordinary demands of life, the field of medicine concerned with the maintenance or achievement of such well-being and adjustment” (Dictionary.com). In other words, mental health is the way people deal with their feelings and how they act throughout their day. Mental diseases, such as depression, could cause people to think of going through the day as a chore and could become really upset at the idea of having to continue to get up and do the same thing over and over again. Mental illnesses cause people to look at life differently or see good things through a different eye.