A relative stated, “The thought of mental illness brings sorrow to my heart. I would want to provide or do anything possible for that individual, along with being cautious” (Stone, April). Mental illness is immensely consequential and should not be taken for granted! Insanity is internationally expanding in humanity, but how can it be elucidated? According to American Psychiatric Association, “Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these)” (“What Is Mental Illness,” par.1). This term derives from the early 15c. era Late Latin word mentalis “of the mind”, regarding the mind or the attribute of brainpower. Each person suffering from mental illness will have dissimilar experiences, even people with a comparable diagnosis.
In general terms, common signs of mental illness in adults or adolescents may include things such as outrageous worrying or fear, the extended feeling of anger, shifts in instinctive behavior, lack of appetite, concern with appearance, etc. Mental illness can formulate in youth as well. Since children aren’t aware of how to express their thoughts or emotions, the most evident indications are behavioral issues. Behavioral issues can be seen in school performances, nightmares, temper tantrums, and disobedience (“Know The Warning Signs”).
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The most common types of mental illnesses include depression, eating disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and attention deficit disorder. For mankind who have mental illnesses, their brains have modified in some measure that they are incapable to reckon, feel, or act effectively. For others, this implies encountering changes in behaviors or mood swings, or it may simply mean not being to communicate with someone who is talking to them.
“My mother, like many people her age, saw mental illness as something to be embarrassed about. When I started to have emotional outbursts at school, or I’d cry and beg her not to fall asleep during the day because the anxiety I felt was unbearable I was just labeled a child with behavioral problems. I was always made to feel like I chose to be this way.” (Chloe, “I am not my mental health condition - I'm a person living with it”). The community every so often views or stigmatizes individuals with mental illnesses as “‘mad', 'crazy', 'cuckoo', or 'nuts'” (“Mental health: ethnic minority carers’ experiences”). It's the public domain that individuals with mental health problems fall into the category of the improbable to find work, be in an unfluctuating relationship, live in decent accommodation, and be socially included in the widespread population. The lack of acceptance towards patients that are mentally ill is a result of the inadequacy of labels placed upon them. Social media and or movie roles perpetuate those with mental illness as incompetent due to false identifications. Civilizations overall perceive individuals with mental illnesses as dangerous or aggressive when studies show that mental victims are most likely at the stake of being harmed, rather than hurting others. Discernment is whetted by media reports that portray violent delinquents as mentally ill, lacking information on the general range of mental illness. For example, individuals labeled with the mental disorder schizophrenia were taken to be highly dangerous and inclined to dangerous displays of anger which allowed in an increase in fear and social separation (Fritz 4).
“The stigma of mental illness can be explained in terms of stereotypes, prejudices, and discrimination” (Corrigan & Bink, sec.1). Stigma is someone’s own negative view of an individual, who is not of the norm. Some people portray stigma as a feeling of shame or assessment from someone else, but it can even come from a deep place inside yourself that will have you confused or “feeling bad with being bad” (“Stigma free”). The stigma corresponding to mental illnesses can be characterized by two types: social stigma, which involves the biased attitudes that others have; and self-perceived stigma, which involves an absorbed stigma that the person with the mental illness suffers from. To be exact, self-stigma leads to the creation of the “why bother” effect, where individuals begin to believe recovery is not an option. To dodge stereotypes or biased judgments, mentally ill people hide their problems by dismissing the topic of seeking care (Druss et al., par.4). The current climate of mental illness can be classified into a state of stigma, which is encountered by the public sphere.
Mental health stigma is a massive impediment to why many people do not seek help. Its applied reasons for not seeking care could possibly be due to two motives. “The first possibility is about the desire to protect the family's reputation and their own dignity. The second relates to the possibility that the mental health professional would see them as “crazy,” similar to the notion of external shame, and finally that the person may be reluctant to open up to strangers, due to a number of factors such as fears of “loss of face,” lack of trust, or the fear of revisiting painful events” ( qtd. in Gopalkrishna, Cultural Diversity and Mental Health: Considerations for Policy and Practice). Stigmatization also has an impact on health professionals’ own willingness to solicit help or expose a mental health problem, which can result in an overmanning of self-treatment or low peer support. Mental illness often embeds the term stigma that exists in our culture, ruining hopes for restoration. Due to the stigma, individuals do not seek treatment from mental health professionals. Their conditions escalate because they aren’t receiving the support and care they need to recuperate. And too often suicide is committed because they aren’t told by anyone that they have company. (StigmaFreeme).
Society’s view of mental illness is defined in a negative connotation, but what is it really? Mental illness is a medical condition interrupting an individual’s mood, thinking, and everyday functioning. This condition is very common and can affect many people worldwide. Inhabitants who have emotional instability do not want to talk about it, nevertheless, mental illness is nothing to be chagrined of! “It is a medical condition, just like heart disease or diabetes” (Parekh, pg.1) Most mental illnesses can be treated in a manner with medication, counseling, diet, operations, and assistance. Mental illnesses are in fact not intruders of body, and they do not exonerate people of accountability for their actions.” Even given its limitations, the concept of mental illness has helped to structure the mental health field for decades, helps connect people to the care they need, and is unlikely to go away any time soon” (Feldman, “Is Mental Illness Real”). It can be treated in a manner with medication, counseling, diet, operations, and assistance.
On the whole, The current climate of mental illness can be classified as a state of stigma, which is encountered by the public sphere. False identifications and biased thoughts are used in movie roles and social media to portray individuals with mental illnesses as dangerous or incapable to live a common life, which causes stigma within the self. Derangement is not something anyone wants to go through alone! Positive emotions from others can alleviate moods, build resilience and bring some confidence back into lives. Mental illness should not be viewed in a negative way but should be conceived as a way for humans to be a “help” to individuals suffering from mental illnesses.
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