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).
People should know more about what some mental ill people can actually do. Some of them might act deviant and break informal social rules. For example, when a person suffers from schizophrenia randomly talks in places where he is supposed to be quiet because of his imaginations. Moreover, some mental ill are just crazy and they commit big crimes breaking the law, school shootings or at public places. According to an article written by Adam Peck “2014 is off to a deadly start: in the first 14 school days of the year, there have been at least seven school shootings. For sake of comparison, there were 28 school shootings in all of 2013, according to gun violence prevention group Moms Demand Action” (Peck, 1014). These tragedies look unprovable to affect a friend or a family member, but statistics actually show this happens way too often around the country. Most of the people do not realize the magnitude of the situation until they affect themselves or someone they care about. Laws can punish these kind of criminals, but they do not compensate the families and friends that have been affected.
Mental illnesses are daily blockades for many people. These illnesses can restrict people from functioning in their daily lives. It can be a simple tic to severe schizophrenia. They can render your ability to care for yourself or others. The obstacle that is having to be dealt with is different for everyone. For some leaving the house is a struggle, while for
Mental illness affects people of diverse age ranges, genders, and ethnicities. How widespread is mental illness in America? Looking at the National institution mental health data chart females in comparison to men have a higher rate of mental illness. The highest age range where mental illness is most most prevalent is 17-25.
What is America doing now to prevent mental illness? I think more could be done.
The average person will go to their family physician if they feel ill or require some type of medical treatment. However, few venture out to seek mental health treatment because of the stigma that is attached to that disease. The fact is that mental health issues is a very common problem in today's society. More common than other physical issues that affect one's health. For example, heart disease, diabetes, or even cancer. Clearly, mental health issues are a problem that will not simply disappear. In fact, untreated mental health issues might even lead to suicide attempts or death.
Throughout history, mental health has been taken for granted; many have not attempted to understand the importance of taking care of their mentality, preferring to focus on physical health instead. Individuals who may suffer from mental illnesses are often unable to receive proper treatment for their concerns, due to the lack of treatments available, social support or professional aid, to name a few. In particular, individual mental health is impacted by economic and age-based inequalities present in modern society. Due to the stigma that surrounds mental illness, individuals who must deal with their mental health are at a severe disadvantage in terms of trying to contribute to society. In addition to dealing with their mental illnesses, they
Mental illness is one of the least talked about problems. The fact that is not really talked about does not make it any less important. 1 in 5 people suffer from some form of mental illness every year (Mental Health Numbers, par. 1). These people often talk down to and criticized for not been behaving normally. The only thing is that normal is not a universal term. What is normal for one person is not normal for another. This is where one of the main problems arise with mental illness: Lack of awareness, other problems are the lack of resources available in hospitals and the lack of permanent solutions for treatment. Mental illness has been around since the stone age and is still a problem today. It is time for a change to occur.
Mental illness has been around since as early as 5000 BCE(Before Common Era) and the treatment of mental illness has been around just as long. There has always been an interest of what happens when a person's mind turns against them, and just what can be done, if anything to help or reverse this condition.
Having an understanding of mental health is a vital aspect to maintain the overall health of an individual. Mental health care is underfunded and misunderstood, so many individuals may not receive the care they need. Some individuals may not recognize that mental health and physical health are correlated. Mental health, according to the World Health Organization, is referred to as a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community (Healey & Evans, 2015). Mental health illnesses such as stress or depression may lead to the abuse of drugs, tobacco,
Mental illness is accompanied by a stigma and interferes with almost all aspects of one’s life. The type, severity and duration of the illness vary from one individual to the next. The delay or absence of treatment for patients with mental illness has serious consequences. mental illness costs the U.S. government an estimated $193.2 billion annually in lost earnings. (Insel, 2008). According to Colton & Manderscheid, mental illness and physical illness is one of the same and both conditions should be provided together within the healthcare system
Mental Illness is a condition that is distinguish by the interference in an individual’s thoughts, emotions,or behavior. Mental Illness has a extensive range of disorders, differ from those that origin from mild to those that harm a person’s ability to function in life. According to the biological perspective, mental illness is a bodily process, which means the process is in the body to be exact “respiratory activity”. In the other hand the psychological perspective, believe that how a person was raised during childhood from its parents play a major role. As well environment can be one of the cause for mental health in our society. Im my opinion we have overlooked mental illness, even though we have improve treatments for mental illness over the years. We can take different approaches in how mental illness is deal today.
Throughout history, the definition of mental disorders was based solely upon social prevalence due to the occurrence of erratic, behavioral disturbances. For instance, in the primitive times, presenting signs of madness or illness were determined to be a punishment from God or Pagan Deities which were believed to have to be alleviated by a religious figure, sorcerer, shaman or by an elected, witch doctor. As, time changed, so did the stigma behind the beliefs of the causation of mental illness, it was believed to be influenced by the spirit world or bewitchment, but when the Greeks and Romans developed a scientific approach describing the relationship between nature
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2011, mental health is a state of well-being in which every person recognizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to her or his own community. Moreover, there is no health without mental health. On the other hand, mental illness has become a significant worldwide health issue in recent years; more than 450 million people suffer from mental disorders (WHO, 2010).
What is mental illness? Well, mental illness is a person’s condition regarding their physical and emotional health. It refers to a wide range of different health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and addictive behavior. Of course, these conditions can be more than frightening to those that are around us, but when people are forced into a treatment involuntarily it is a violation of their rights as a human.