Andrew Laeddis: How Individuals With Delusional Di

Diagnosing an individual with a mental illness balances on a fine line between giving a life-long label and misdiagnosing. Mental illness is best viewed on a continuum allowing for a varying degree of severity. In the field, mental health professionals are faced with determining what signifies the appropriateness of diagnosing a mental illness. A professional’s judgment is impacted by their personal perceptions and observations, societies views and norms, and the patient’s history. The film, “How Mad Are You? A Search for Insanity” demonstrates the difficulties in distinguishing those who are mentally ill from those seen as healthy ( ). I will explore my reactions and thoughts regarding the participants’ experience as well as the mental health professionals. Additionally, I will share how this information is applicable to my future career in the field of social work.

In 1973, psychologist David Rosenhan published “On Being Sane in Insane Places” which documents the results of studies he and his confederates conducted at 12 different psychiatric hospitals across the United States. The studies were an examination into the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis methods. Rosenhan’s research focused on testing the hypothesis of whether or not psychiatrists and medical staff can distinguish the sane from the insane and if the characteristics that lead to diagnoses relate more to the patient or to the environment and context in which they’re being assessed. (Rosenhan, 1973) The study was divided into two main parts. Participant observations and comparative information studies were noted as well as they gave valuable insight into the treatment of psychiatric patients, conditions in psychiatric hospitals, and the effect that diagnostic labels had on how patients were perceived by staff. Ultimately, the study discovered that psychiatrists could not reliably distinguish the sane from the insane and insight was gained into how diagnostic labels and environmental context play a strong role in the perception of behavior.

The short documentary Crooked Beauty, directed by Ken Paul Rosenthal, narrates Jacks Ashley McNamara’s experience in a psychiatric ward and how her time in the facility shapes her new appreciation for her mental illness. One controversial issue has been trying to identify the true cause of mental illness. On the one hand, most people may think mental illness is simply a biological disorder that can be cured with a combination of medication and doctors demanding appropriate behavior until it sticks in the patient’s mind. On the other, McNamara contends that mental illness is a misconception with a patient’s oversensitivity, where it is harder for the patient to ignore certain events than “normal” people, and their doctor’s textbook knowledge. In McNamara’s mental institution, the psychiatrists simply trap her in a padded room and prescribe many different pills to suppress her mental illness instead of embracing her differences or showing her how to use those differences to her advantage. In attempt to prevent those who are mentally ill from feeling the same anger and frustration she felt, she demands a change in the line psychiatric treatment when she says:

Furthermore, tremendous advances have been made in the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses in the recent decades. Nowadays, someone with a mental illness is treated with respect, just like every other person, because, in fact, everyone is equal. Society’s goals today are to treat and support the mentally ill individuals enough so they can live in

- The original question of the study was: ‘If sanity and insanity exist, how shall we know them?’ but Rosenhan narrowed it down in order to make it easier to answer and less of a philosophical debate. ‘Do the salient characteristics that lead to diagnoses reside in the patients themselves or in the environments and contexts in which observers find them?’ The question was narrowed down to patients, referring to those declared unwell in mind by medical institutions, and wonders whether diagnoses are made based on the patients themselves or preconceived societal notions and the unique living situation within the hospital.

It appears that Andrew’s disorder was definitely caused by a horrific precipitating event— his wife’s murder of their children and then his subsequent murder of his wife. Once we see, at the end of the movie, that this occurred and Andrew is not really the U.S. Marshal named Teddy that he was portraying, we see that he has been deluding himself for years. The DSM-IV-TR also mentions that “the disorder may be chronic, although a waxing and waning of the preoccupation with delusional beliefs often occurs.” It also states that “full periods of remission may be followed by subsequent relapses.” At the end of the movie, Andrew is shown acknowledging the harsh reality that his delusions have been masking. However, he quickly relapses the next day as we see when he calls Dr. Sheehan by the name of Chuck. It is apparent that reality is too much for Andrew to handle.

In Ron Howard's work, A Beautiful Mind, depicts the real life account of Professor John Nash and his struggle with paranoid Schizophrenia. The topic of mental illness has become popularized as of late, particularly in popular media (film, television). This focus on mental disorders has greatly improved awareness of mental disorders, but this media has become a double edged sword. The same process that educates people (ie these films and shows) can also disseminate largely false or misleading information. In the film, both sides of this information distribution phenomena are expressed. To evaluate the effectiveness of the movie to accurately describe the occurrence of paranoid Schizophrenia one must look at the accuracy of the onset,

An individual can psyche himself or herself on believing that a prescribed drug given from pharmaceutical doctors are making them feel better. Madness in today’s world can be covered up by those medications, unless everyone is brainwashed in believing that it can. In present society, medicine given to people to “treat” them for certain mental illnesses is normal to see. In the nineteenth century, people who suffered from mental madness had to deal with the insanity, such as depression or hearing voices, without any help. They had to go through the pain, while everyone else watched them, and those who had no problems judged them. In the past, a person was looked down on if someone else noticed problems with that individual. This created many people to try and hide their madness, so others would think they were normal. Those who believed they were safe from this psychological illness had not received any detrimental problem in their life to unleash it. Erik Larson’s novel, The Devil in the White City, foreshadows the characteristic of madness in many of the characters. Larson reveals in his novel that it does not matter what type of individual you are because everyone has some sort of madness inside of her or him, waiting to be revealed.

Although there is no cure the author can see benefits from psychotherapy. Talk therapy can be utilized to talk about the client’s past trauma, in hopes that after talking the client can learn ways to cope and understand their past traumas. Since the client has symptoms of DID and hallucinations, free association and hypnosis can be used to encourage the client to talk freely about materials from their unconscious mind. With this, interpretation of the client conscious thoughts and unconscious behavior and motives can be discussed. Also, with hypnosis the client can possibly learn more about their other personality states, and hope to gain insight to control those states. The author finds it really interesting that although the client shows great love and closeness to his mother, he still has suspicion in her motives. The client hallucinated the instant where his deceased father told him that Norma was the crazy one instead… The author can see why it would be difficult to assess and treat the client due to that

It was a normal day for Dr. Allison Winters or so she thought. She showed up to South Brook Clinic,a state funded mental institution for the mentally ill who have committed violent or other serious crimes. Dr. Winters wasn’t expecting anything new to happen today.Nothing exciting ever really happens there because due to the fact the patients she talks to are usually so heavily medicated they don’t do anything other than babble about impending armageddon and sometimes they 'd drool occasionally. These people are usually forgotten by society and most of the people who took vow to help them shove pills down their throats so they don’t have to listen to them.

In Canada, there are approximately 120,000 people that have been diagnosed with dementia or a related condition. Dementia is a progressive mental disorder characterized as the deterioration of intelligence and personality (Myers, 2009). By 2031 the number of people living with dementia will drastically increase to 750,000 due to the aging baby boomers population (Statistics Canada, 2013; Black, et al., 2010). People living with dementia require assistance with activities of daily living (ADL); this assistance is often performed by a family member acting as a caregiver (Black, et al., 2010). A caregiver is a person who contributes to another person 's social, medical, environmental and economic resources (Myers, 2009). Although family

The fact that Andrew concealed his illness is relevant to the case because of the worries he had about the stigmas. He

Nursing education includes theoretical studies and clinical experiences which cannot be substitute with other. While starting my nursing career as a student without any previous experiences in mental health, I also have the same attitude as general people where mentally ill people are vulnerable, dangerous, unpredictable, and to some degree responsible for their own illness. Initially, I was not fully prepared, anxious and stressed to start the course. After studying mental health, I found what is mental health, what are the causes of mental illness, disease type, a severity of diseases and as being nurse how can we treat mentally ill people. Hence, after studying mental health, my perspective towards the mentally ill patient is totally changed and feel more comfortable to deal with mental illness.

Going through the theories and the practicalities involved in nursing care interventions without having a good knowledge of using therapeutic communication with patients will amount to nothing. According to Ellis, Gates and Kenworthy (2003, p.214) says that good communication is vital to effective nursing and it is a good skill for a mental health nursing to be able to build up a therapeutic rapport with patients. In my fifth face to face communication with Mr K, he opened to us why he refused to be prick in his fingers for blood sugar and also about his diagnosis. He said that his older brother was labelled as having schizophrenia and blood was taken from him monthly by the doctors and he still remains in the mental health institution till date. Throughout our conversation, I listened attentively. I

role in the performance of Black Swan. A delusion is a strange false belief firmly held despite evidence to the contrary (Comer, 2011).