Mental Health, What is that? According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), it defines mental illness as Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses are associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities. (What Is Mental Illness? (n.d.). Retrieved June 26, 2016, from https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/what-is-mental-illness). Mental Disorders are a wide range of mental conditions that affect mood, thinking, and behavior. There are a lot of different psychological disorders here is a list of the major psychological disorders and their definitions: …show more content…
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 …show more content…
You don’t have to come from a poor family or be homeless to suffer from a mental illness. For instance, some very well-known people have suffered from the various disorders. This is to further illustrate, that not only poor people, or people from broken homes suffer from these mental disorders that the disorders don’t care about how much money you make or who your parents are. It also could care less about what race you are or what church you belong too. If you are young or old if you work on wall street or ride on the back of a garbage truck picking up the city’s trash. It can strike anyone so let’s take a look at a few of these people well known
Those who push themselves to speak out and seek help end up feeling worse than before due to discrimination in the workplace, as the average per person cost of lost employment due to schizophrenia and related illnesses for those ages 45-64 is £19,078, while costs for those aged 15-44 were just under £30,000. Because of something out of their control, their entire lifestyle has to be sacrificed in order to try and get the help they need. This also influences other individuals in similar situations to keep quiet about their illness to prevent losing their job or becoming a victim to discrimination and bullying in the workplace. It is bad enough for adults to go through this but what about
To understand what mental illness is you have to know what it means. Mental health is the state of our well-being. Mental health has to do with the mind. According to thefreedictionary.com mental health is “a state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life”. Mental illness are behavioral, psychological, and emotional disorders that effect the mind. Mental illness is not something that should be avoided. There many different types of mental illnesses. There are also mental healthcare services that can help people with their mental illnesses.
A mental disorder, or illness, is defined as “a mental… condition marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, and emotions to seriously impair the normal psychological functioning of the individual” (Merriam & Webster, 2014). Mental illness affects approximately 1 of 4 people in the United States over the age of 18, or 26.2%. Of that 26.2%, six percent of them suffer from a mental disorder that is considered serious and 45% of them have characteristics that meet the criteria for more than one mental disorder. On any given day, 6.7% of United States citizens are suffering from depression, 1.5% are suffering from dysthymic disorder, 2.6% are exhibiting signs and symptoms of bipolar disorder, 1.1% are diagnosed with schizophrenia, 18.1% are suffering from anxiety, and 13.8% of the population are battling conditions such as eating disorders, attention deficient hyperactivity disorder, or a personality disorder (National Institute of Mental Health, 2014).
As a society, we try to get rid of things we are afraid of, things which make us nervous and things we don't understand. Perhaps mental illness is not so much a problem for the mentally ill, but for their communities who can not and will not empathize with them. I wonder if people suffering from a mental illness are not really suffering at all, but are simply a behavioral minority. Their behavior prevents them from being accepted by the majority. They can not find work or often even a place to live, as these things are controlled by the majority. Instead, for those that are ironically considered lucky, the majority gives them medication and often sends them away to a locked facility.
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.
The term mental ill health is defined by Mind as ‘mental health problems that can affect the way you think, feel and behave’ (Mind, 2013). This means that it is a serious disorder in a person’s behaviour which can impact their thinking, feeling or mood and it may also affect their ability to participate with others and function on a day to day basis. There are many types of disorders and some are more common than others. For example, mood
Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions, or disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior ("Mental Illness"). Mental disorders are commonly left untreated for long periods of time because of the stigma our society has placed on mental issues. This forces individuals with mental illness to self-medication, frequently resulting in addictive behaviors. Persons with mental disorders seek ways to ease their discomfort and suffering. Marijuana can be used to treat an individuals depression or to ease pain. Stimulants can be used to get an otherwise lazy person motivated.
Mental illnesses are any psychiatric disorder that causes unusual behavior. Some examples of these include depression, anxiety, or schizophrenia. People affected by mental illnesses often do not get the help they need in order to be better. Many things cause cause a mental
According to the National Alliance Mental illness is defined as a condition that impacts a person’s thinking, feeling, or mood and may affect his or her ability to relate to others or function on a
Mental illness, defined by the CDC Mental illnesses refer to disorders generally characterized by dysregulation
Health is a complex concept, and when we talk about health we refer to body health and to the health of the mind, the health of relationships between us and those around us, the spiritual health. Looking online on one of the additional resources recommended, www.nimh.nih.gov, I have noticed that one of the symptoms of most diseases that affect a person's mental health is lack of sleep. Lack of sleep not only worsens man's mental health, but also causes serious imbalances in metabolism, immunity, general mood, and last but not least, affects the ability of learning and memorizing among students. The sleep fulfills a number of vital functions for both our mind and body. We spend about a third of our lives sleeping, which is a valuable and useful
Mental health has been hidden behind a curtain of stigma and discrimination for a long time. Suffering, burden, and magnitude in terms of disability and costs to individuals, families, and societies are overwhelming. The world has become more aware of the enormous burden and potential that exists to make progress in mental health. We really need to invest substantially more in mental health and we must do so now. In the United States, government health insurance plans exist for eligible patients with these disorders, although they sometimes do not cover everything patients need.
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
As mental illnesses continue to be overlooked, the number of people who suffer from these illnesses continues to grow, creating a huge disparity between those who are mentally ill and those maintaining an optimal mental state within a general population. Currid and Horgan (2012) state that “by the year 2020, the World Health Organization projects that depression, [one type of mental illness], will be the second most common debilitating condition and that people will lose a substantial amount of years both in terms of premature mortality and life productivity” (p. 1). It is evident that there is not enough being done to limit the prevalence of mental illness, seeing as it is persistently thriving, and as the issue remains unsolved, many people miss the opportunity of being able to live their lives functioning in a stable, healthy state. Therefore, it is crucial for the public to acknowledge the issue in a serious manner to prevent massive loss of life, as well as develop a stronger focus on establishing public health initiatives geared towards treating mental illnesses. Moreover, along with the public needing to understand the severity and growing occurrence of mental illness, it is also important for the public to develop a better “attitude” in approaching mental illness. As mentioned before, there is an apparent stigma towards individuals suffering from mental illnesses, which affects the probability of mental illness patients receiving effective treatment and also disconnects these individuals from proper social integration and acceptance into society. Tulchinsky et al. (2012) note that “many [mentally ill persons, especially of the homeless population] end up, inappropriately, in the criminal legal system due to aberrant behaviors” (p. 5). Due to this underlying prejudice, it is difficult to provide treatment for victims of mental
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.