Mental Illnesses In The 20th Century

Mental illness are one of the most misunderstood conditions known to mankind. There were very few studies done on mental illnesses until the 20th century, and even still, humans don’t know that much about mental illnesses. Many people believe that they are just made up, or can be controlled by thinking differently or doing something, but recent science shows otherwise. Mental illnesses are caused by 4 factors, which are heredity, early life experiences, recent life experiences, and physical factors. Recent and early life experiences cause a variety of mental illnesses. Early life experiences are the cause of many, many of these illnesses from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), to depression (Szalavitz 2015). Early life experiences can cause fear or phobias that can lead to mental illnesses later in life. An example of this would be that when a child is abused at a young age, they are more likely to be afraid of certain things that they relate to their abuser or abuse

Real obsessions are the thoughts or feelings that change the way someone thinks about the world and things around them. Obsessions include anything from being cautious of “pairs” to being afraid of dirt. A person can have an obsession with anything, and anyone can have an obsession, but only in extreme cases do these obsessions lead to the second part of OCD, compulsions. Compulsions are actions that are caused by obsessions. Compulsions aren’t exactly things that are done 24/7 or ritually, but are done whenever a person’s thought or feelings about a subject take over their actions. An example of this would be constantly washing ones hands and wearing protective gloves/masks, due to a fear or strong dislike of germs. Though this isn’t one of the most extreme cases, it is very hard to imagine being forced to wash your hands every couple of minutes because your brain literally cannot deal with there being germs on your