Anxiety has long been a daily struggle for the average person. The effects of anxiety can range from mild nervousness to severe panic attacks, but most people tend to avoid it altogether. Social media has found a place at the forefront of modern life and in turn modern anxiety. Allowing a constant connection to friends, family and information, social media has begun to increase daily anxieties in the form of the fear of missing out (FoMO) and social anxiety. Equally as important are the failings of the mental health system, making the treatment of social media induced anxiety inaccessible for most. Sadly, getting off of social media would be difficult for many, but getting mental health help can be just as hard. However, merging that care into …show more content…
Larry Rosen discusses a study performed by Dr. Nancy Cheever in his article “Phantom Pocket Vibration Syndrome.” The study separated two groups of college students: one put their phones under the desk while the other turned their phones in. She administered a test to each student to determine anxiety every twenty minutes over the course of an hour. Dr. Cheever’s study found, that the group with their smart phones turned in showed higher instances of anxiety (“Phantom Pocket Vibration”). Granted, smart phones have multiple features that could create a dependency, yet people have become increasingly influenced by the fear of missing out or the need for constant connection to other’s lives. A common phenomenon, phantom pocket vibrations, exemplifies Cheever’s findings and the fear of missing out. Specifically, when a smart phone receives a notification from a social network it will vibrate or ring to notify the person using the device. The cycle of receiving and answering these notifications releases dopamine into the brain. In anticipation of the next notification and the associated dopamine, people will often feel a false or phantom vibration from the place they typically keep their phone (Halsey). Rosen describes the anxiety behind the phenomenon, “anxiety-related neurotransmitters are making us interpret random neurological signals as potential cell phone transmissions” (“Phantom Pocket Vibration”). The unnatural ability to feel connected, combined with a need to stay …show more content…
Maia Szalavitz addresses some of the issues in, “America’s Failing Mental Health System: Families Struggle to Find Quality Care.” She identifies health insurance, or the lack thereof, as a large influence on treatment. “Reimbursement for mental health services, from both public and privates insurers, frequently falls short of providing the most-needed services, which typically involve continuous care that can extend for years” (Szalavitz). Despite health insurance being mandatory, often insurers do not cover mental health care. Equally, treatment without health insurance remains expensive and federal funding of programs that provide mental health care continues to decline. Additionally, the constraints of payment issues increase the difficulty of finding a treatment that works and fits into a schedule. As Gina Nikkel addresses in her article “How to Fix the Broken Mental Health System: Ten Crucial Changes”, “Supports and treatments are most effective when they are designed and implemented in partnership with the people we are trying to help.” (Nikkel). Essentially, creating a low cost and available treatment would connect more people to
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
Belluck’s New York Times article describes a study that ordered mentally ill patients to receive treatment instead of being hospitalized. The study found that the patients were less likely to be placed in psychiatric hospitals or arrested, and outpatient treatment and medication refills increased. This also proved economical, because the mental health system and Medicaid costs were reduced by at least fifty percent. This program doesn’t only apply to the patient to accept treatment, it also requires the mental health system to provide it, making the program more effective
Mental healthcare has a long and murky past in the United States. In the early 1900s, patients could live in institutions for many years. The treatments and conditions were, at times, inhumane. Legislation in the 1980s and 1990s created programs to protect this vulnerable population from abuse and discrimination. In the last 20 years, mental health advocacy groups and legislators have made gains in bringing attention to the disparity between physical and mental health programs. However, diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses continues to be less than optimal. Mental health disparities continue to exist in all areas of the world.
If the United States had unlimited funds, the appropriate response to such a high number of mentally ill Americans should naturally be to provide universal coverage that doesn’t discriminate between healthcare and mental healthcare. The United States doesn’t have unlimited funds to provide universal healthcare at this point, but the country does have the ability to stop coverage discrimination. A quarter of the 15.7 million Americans who received mental health care listed themselves as the main payer for the services, according to one survey that looked at those services from 2005 to 2009. 3 Separate research from the same agency found 45 percent of those not receiving mental health care listing cost as a barrier.3 President Obama and the advisors who helped construct The Affordable Care Act recognized the problem that confronts the mentally ill. Mental healthcare had to be more affordable and different measures had to be taken to help patients recover. Although The Affordable Care Act doesn’t provide mentally ill patients will universal coverage, the act has made substantial changes to the options available to them.
“Insurance companies often cover mental illness in a more limited fashion than physical illness” (Christensen). The lack of mental health care provided for the mentally ill has been a growing issue in the US during the previous years, and there has been some progress. For example, there has been the Mental Health Care and Parity Law of 2008 that was enacted so that the insurers would cover mental illness just as they would cover other illnesses. In addition, the Affordable Care Act was enacted to enforce that the insurers abide by the rules. Unfortunately, that hasn’t helped much, hence: the sneaky behavior of insurance companies. This sneaky behavior seems to be unnoticed by the government the majority of the time unless the patient or his family decides to file a lawsuit. Until then, insurance companies have been constantly bending rules and finding loopholes to not pay insurance for mental illness.
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.
States obtain many services that fall under mental health care, and that treat the mentally ill population. These range from acute and long-term hospital treatment, to supportive housing. Other effective services utilized include crisis intervention teams, case management, Assertive Community Treatment programs, clinic services, and access to psychiatric medications (Honberg at al. 6). These services support the growing population of people living in the...
Two decades ago hospitals were for the physically ill and asylums were for the mentally ill. With the stigma fading from mental illness and a movement toward deinstitutionalization, this paradigm of segregation of mental and physical health care does not hold true today. A direct effect of the paradigm shift is a greater willingness on the part of the public to seek help for mental health problems. (Madonna, 2000, ¶ 6) Managed care has stepped up to fill the increasing need for inexpensive mental health care coverage.
Most of the time there are many people out there who can afford to attain health insurance or have insurance but their insurance doesn't cover mental health. The poor are the one's who gets hit hard the most. The American Health Care Act doesn't want to expand anymore money towards mental health. Mental health treatment services need to be maintained but also expaned in order to keep the country's mental health needs. Melissa Warnke explains, "The House and Senate verisons of Trumpcare would both phase out funding for that expansion and cut Medicaid spending by almost a trillion dollars over a decade." (Warnke,1) By decreasing Americans access to treatment will just make them suffer even longer. Warnke says, "between 70% and 90% of individuals who have access to medication and/or counseling treatments for mental health issues see a significant reduction in symptoms." (2) If Trumpcare goes into effect, your only option are to be rich or maintain physical and mental health throughout your life. Treatment should not just be for the wealthy. This will just lead to suicide because there will be no help. Advocates for people with mental illnesses have urged the government
The NSDUH reports that individuals with a mental illness is more like to also have a chronic health condition and are more likely to use hospitalization and emergency room treatment (NSDUH, 2014). According to SAMSHA (n.d.), 50% of Medicaid enrollees have a diagnosable mental health condition. Individuals with a diagnosed mental health condition have health care cost that is 75% higher than those without a mental health diagnosis (SAMSHA, n.d.). For an individual with a co-occurring disorder the cast is nearly three times higher than what the average Medicaid
How the social networking influents young people’s psychological well-being? Since the World Wide Web appeared in the world in the year of 1991, the internet has significantly changed people’s life on almost every level. Especially when the social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, became popular during the last decade, people’s lifestyles have greatly changed by this form of communication, which consequently brings many psychological effects on the young people. As the result, according to the recent researches, the teenagers and the young adults in this era are bearing many mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and addiction, due to the social
In the last decade there has been a growing recognition of the importance towards social anxiety. Whether it is caused by talking to the opposite sex, giving a speech, or social pressures caused by social media. Which in the 21st century is a major key in how people view themselves and interact with each other. Often leading to more people being effected by social anxiety due to social media.
The University of Salford in the UK did a study last year on social media’s effects on self-esteem and anxiety, and reported that 50% of their 298 participants said that their “use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter makes their lives worse”. (Medical Daily) The study also reported that participants said ...
One of the most concerning effects of social media is depression. When teens create an online identity, they are often displaying an unauthentic self. This “other” self is often what the person wants to be like. Having to jump from the online self to the real self can often lead to depression. In an article in the Huffington Post, Dr. Jim Taylor calls this Facebook depression. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that “Researchers have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook depression,” defined as depression that develops when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression.” (802). Facebook and other social media outlets create an almost high school-like environment outside of school where the teen has to strive for acceptance as well. Dr. Moreno tells the New York Times that ...
Government’s policies on mental health care have not materialized nor helped those with mental illnesses the way they were intended. Insurance companies continue to cheat the mentally ill of affordable treatment; mental hospitals are persistent on not releasing patients for years, robbing others of medical care; sick and unable to hold steady jobs, homelessness becomes the only option for many; irrational decisions become rational and crime becomes viable. With a rebuilding of the mental health care system, stricter rules on parity insurance, and reduced stigmas, crime would lower, the homeless would dissipate, and more Americans would lead normal, healthy lives.