What 's So Funny About Mental Illness?

746 Words2 Pages

What’s So Funny About Mental Illness?
One in four people suffer from mental illness. Ruby Wax is a comedian and activist for awareness of mental illnesses. In 2012 Ms. Wax was invited to the TED stage to discuss this topic in her unique way. She speaks of her battle with mental illness and how she succumbed to her psychological breakdown by describing the general effects. This easily describes how she is well qualified to discuss the topic. She delivers this dynamic and intellectual information so simply it makes the listener comfortable. Her delivery and discussion is a great platform for discussing this incredible complex illness.
The brain has 100 billion neurons that fire away constantly. Ms. Wax uses this information to illustrate the difference in the primitive man and modern man. “Evolution did not prepare us for this.” Wax states (Wax). Man was once a fight or flight instinctual being. Man would see danger which would trigger an adrenaline induced response where the man would defend himself or escape to safety. Once the emergency was gone, the mind would decompre...

Show More
Related

  • An Analysis Of Susan Sheehan's Schizophrenia

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1978, Susan Sheehan took an interest in Sylvia Frumkin, a schizophrenic who spent most of her life in and out of mental hospitals. For more than two years, Sheehan followed Sylvia around, observing when Sylvia talked to herself, sitting in on sessions with Sylvia’s doctors, and at times, sleeping in the same bed as Sylvia during her stay at the psychiatric centers. Through Sheehan’s intensive report on Sylvia’s life, readers are able to obtain useful information on what it’s like to live with this disorder, how impairing it can be for them, and the symptoms and causes to look out for; likewise, readers can get an inside look of how some mental hospitals are run and how a misdiagnosis can negatively impact someone’s life.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Oliver Sacks's 'Witty Ticcy Ray'

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    Davison et al. (2014) define a mental disorder as “a behavioural or psychological syndrome associated with current distress and/or disability” (p. G8). While mental disorders have behavioural and cognitive origins, physical disorders have physiological or neurological origins. Although these disorders can be separately defined, they often appear together. Tourette’s is a neurological disorder also appearing in the DSM-5 and creating many specific challenges. Davison et al. (2014) acknowledge that “people with psychological disorders often face negative stereotyping and stigmatization” (p. 18). Similarly, Ray faced stigmatization as a result of his Tourette’s. Sacks (1981) states, “[Ray] had been subject to these [tics] since the age of four and severely stigmatised by the attention they aroused.” Additionally, like many individuals with mental disorders, Ray was challenged by unpredictable mood changes. For example, Ray experienced times of wild mannerisms and energies, but could also, with a “kinetic melody”, be tension-free and tic-free (Sacks, 1981). Finally, individuals with mental disorders often struggle to find both useful and enjoyable treatment options. Likewise, Ray’s first treatment attempt was unsuccessful and he was forced to explore alternatives. Although individuals with mental illnesses may face challenges, these challenges can

    Read More

  • Guns and Mental Illnesses Don't Mix

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many types of mental illnesses that can affect a person’s ability to function on a level fit for society. Those illnesses affect people differently and to different extremes. Diagnosable mental disorders are changes in thinking, moods, or behaviors that can cause a rise in the risk of death and may cause distress, pain, or disability. More severe mental illnesses include three major illnesses: Schizophrenia, major depression, and manic depression. Schizophrenia is a brain ailment that causes a loss in the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy. Many people who suffer from schizophrenia often hear voices that tell them to do different things. In some cases, the voices tell them to hurt themselves or other people. Other symptoms ma...

    Read More

  • Misdiagnosis In The Yellow Wallpaper

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mental Health is a chronic misdiagnosis today. For many years, mental illnesses were down played and not taken seriously. Physicians thought women suffered from “the baby blues” when in reality, they were suffering from serious illnesses. Woman who were not treated properly for depression would spiral into out of control psychosis.

    Read More

  • What is Mental Illness?

    1860 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Media Portrayal of Mental Illness in America

    3886 Words  | 8 Pages

    Mental illness is more common than one would like to believe. In reality, one in five Americans will suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. Though that ratio is about equivalent to more than fifty-four million people, mental illness still remains a shameful and stigmatized topic (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). The taboo of mental illness has an extensive and exhausting history, dating back to the beginning of American colonization. It has not been an easy road, to say the least.

    Read More

  • Incarceration and Mental Health: A Critical Analysis

    2180 Words  | 5 Pages

    The purpose of jail is to control criminals, decrease crime rates, decrease recidivism, and by the end of the inmate 's sentencing individuals are expected to return to society as if everything were “normal”. However, the majority of individuals who are incarcerated is because they did not pay fines, they were not able to post bail, or because they have a mental health diagnosis. Who knew jails were the new models of psychiatric facilities. It’s been proven that people with mental illness often experience worsened symptoms, recidivism, and abuse while incarcerated. Which poses the question of is jail the place individuals with a mental health diagnosis should be?

    Read More

  • Biological and Psychoanalytic Perspectives in Psychology

    1625 Words  | 4 Pages

    The biological perspective examines how brain processes and other bodily functions regulate behaviour. It emphasizes that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behaviour, thought, and emotion. It is believed that thoughts and emotions have a physical basis in the brain. Electrical impulses zoom throughout the brain’s cells, releasing chemical substances that enable us to think, feel, and behave. René Descartes (1596–1650) wrote an influential book (De Homine [On Man]) in which he tried to explain how the behaviour of animals, and to some extent the behaviour of humans, could be like t...

    Read More

  • This Quicksilver Illness: Moods, Stigma, and Creativity

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kay Jamison is one of the faces of manic depression (or in more sterile terms, bipolar disorder). She is currently the face of one of the renowned researchers of manic depression and topics relating to the disease, ranging from suicide to creativity. She is a tenured professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, author of a best-selling memoir and one of the standard medical texts on the subject. She has also been the face of madness and despair, a mercurial young woman whose life became controlled by moods, a sufferer of "this quicksilver illness." Her memoir An Unquiet Mind is an honest and moving account of someone living with the disease. What is unique about Jamison is that regardless of her scientific understanding of her mental illness, she has the ability to convey depression and mania with lyrical poignancy.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Mental Health in Canada

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    Close to six million Canadians live with mental illness; let alone the thousands that are undiagnosed. Mental illness has made big headlines in the news in the recent years. The people suffering from mental illness have been faced with discrimination a caused by a stigma towards them. Mental illness can be caused by many different factors whether they are psychological or environmental. Although only twenty percent of Canadians personally experience mental illness in their lifetime, it affects everyone in their lives. Many of the people suffering from mental illness live their lives in silence because of the stigma attached to the illness. They would rather nobody know about their condition than face the stigma and discrimination of the public. Society has come a long way from a hundred years ago when they would use trepanation. Trepanation is a primitive method used to heal head injuries; they truly believed that carving a hole in ones skull would release any mental injuries the patient had. A decade ago people suffering from mental illness were treated as if they were less than others. Now a days, people suffering from mental illness are not treated as poorly as before, they have larger support group than before, and society is more understanding of mental illness now. However, there is still much room for improvement.

    Read More

  • The Quiet Room Analysis

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    Disabilities of mental health are common, but not many people are talking about them. As strong stigma is attached to them, and mishandled representation only furthers the stigma. Lori Schiller pushed through the silence to present a narrative that shows the complex ways in which a mental illness can affect someone and those around

    Read More

  • Examples Of Single Story Perspective

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is a widely accepted stigma surrounding those suffering from mental illness. This narrow and often grossly misinformed perspective or single story has negatively affected countless lives and when left unchecked, can bring about a great deal of harm. Single stories and stereotypes are dangerous. A young woman by the name of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has both experienced them and participated in them. In her 2009 TED talk, Adichie discusses how the single story perspective negatively

    Read More

  • The Portrayal of Schizophrenia in Me, Myself, and Irene

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most people gather what they know about mental illnesses from television and film. Unfortunately these media portrayals are inaccurate and create stigma. They depict people suffering from mental illnesses as different, dangerous and laughable. Characters are often addicted to drugs or alcohol, are violent, dangerous, or out of control. Horror film characters like Norman Bates in Psycho, Jack Torrance in the Shining, or Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs associate the typical 'psycho- killer' with people who suffer from a mental illness. But dramas and horror films are not the only film genres that create stigma. Comedies like What About Bob and many others not only stigmatize, they also make fun of mental illnesses and the people who suffer from them. This paper will discuss how the film Me, Myself & Irene is an inaccurate, offensive and stigmatizing portrayal of an individual suffering from schizophrenia. It also discusses what can be done to counteract the stigma created by these types of films.

    Read More

  • Documentary Analysis: Amazing Secrets About The Human Brain

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    The documentary, “Amazing Secrets About the Human Brain” presented by the History Channel, explains how the brain works to people with little to no academic knowledge on the subject. The brain is “the most complicated device” humans have found, so it is certainly a topic of interest to many. In the past few years, knowledge of the brain has grown significantly. The documentary’s goal is to describe the complexity of the brain and how it influences various human behaviors, such as fear, sexual arousal, sports performance, and psychic mediums. With a minor shortcoming, the documentary does a sufficient job of introducing the complexity and workings of the brain to people with little knowledge of the topic.

    Read More

  • What Is Mental Health Education Essay

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    The purpose of this would be to help raise awareness for mental health, education on how to deal with mental illnesses both interpersonally and intrapersonally, and to remove the stigmatization around mental illnesses. Throughout history mental illnesses has received a negative connotation closely tied to violence and currently this stigma is still relevant.

    Read More

More about What 's So Funny About Mental Illness?

Open Document