Social Stigma and Mental Illnesses

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Recommended: implications of stigma to sufferers of mental health

Social Stigma and Mental Illnesses
Whenever an individual is identified as having a mental illness, he or she is seen in a different kind of light. Most of the time mental illnesses have a negative connotation to it. This is because the wrongful connection between violence and mental illnesses. Societies negative view of mental illnesses creates many drawbacks in diagnosing and treating the mental disorders. That is why society needs to abandon their negative perspective of mental illnesses.
In studying mental health there is a wide variety of disorders and levels. There is no defined line of being totally normal or being mentally ill. Mental health is usually characterized by the “individuals ability to maintain their mental and emotional balance in times of crisis or stress”(Mental Health and Illness). With that being said, it is crucially important in diagnosing mental illnesses early on and effectively treating those disorders. The mental disorder that is most connected to being violent is schizophrenia. Many mass murders of school shootings and movie theater shooting have showed some sign of schizophrenia. More specifically James Holmes who shot 12 people in a movie theater in California. In the article written by Szalavitz, it had been recorded that Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia (Szalavitz). Schizophrenia developed at adolescences it causes extreme delusions and paranoia. It becomes more and more severe and in the end it is out of control for the individual. It creates a whole different reality for the individual (Mental Health and Illness).
Although schizophrenia is considered a severe psychotic disorder studies show that “the majority of people with schizophrenia (about 1% of the po...

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...ws. Psychiatry Online, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
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Rovner, Julie, and Audie Cornish. "White House Releases Long-Awaited Rules
On Mental Health." NPR. NPR, 08 Nov. 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2014
Szalavitz, Maia. "Mass Murder and Mental Illness: The Interplay of Stigma, Culture and Disease." Time. Time, 31 July 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2014
Shah, Nirvi. "School Security, Mental-Health Measures Advance." Education Week 17 Apr. 2013: 19. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
Stuart, Heather. "Media Portrayal of Mental Illness and Its Treatments." CNS Drugs 20.2 (2006): 99-106. ProQuest. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
Verma, Aditi. "Gun Control and Mental Illness." Penn Bioethics Journal 8.2 (2012): 6-7. ProQuest. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

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