Crazy Like Us

There are several different assessments that can be used for victims of trauma to determine the level of stress and if a victim is suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. The best results will occur if the clinical work is directed at the symptoms expressed by the resulting trauma. When assessing the treatment plan, “the psychic injury caused by the event and its impact on the survivor’s normal life patterns and his or her worldview must be accounted for” (Everstine & Everstine, 2006, p.161). A person

As Americans it becomes natural to undermine those with a mental illness. As a fact, many adults and children deal with mental illness each and everyday. There are many stories that have been told to Americans about depression, anxiety, along with bipolar disorders, with the outcome usually being a negative consequence. For the 1 in every 5 citizens that deal with a mental illness each year. Americans have neglected the fact that many adults and children deal with mental issue(s), the citizens that refrain from getting help; their well being can suffer detrimental effects, there is not a lot of awareness either taught in school, or in public perspectives, American’s stigma has perfected their

From there, the article talks about how mental illness is a global problem and how societies all over the world see it as a burden. Because of this, mental illnesses have become a chronic disease, especially in the United States; this because nothing is being done to help those affected. The article has a focus on creating strategies to help resolve or improve the problems there are with mental illness. The author looks at past resolutions and asks people who are actually going through this themselves in order to better understand what society can do to help alleviate some of the pain and

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been the focus of considerable attention, and some controversy, since it was formally recognised in 1980 by the American Psychiatric Association. This essay will discuss the history of this relatively new diagnosis and its place within the DSM-IV-TR, whilst three perspectives of pathological reaction to trauma, namely, socio-cultural, psychological and biological factors will also be compared. In conclusion this essay will discuss how the three perspectives contrast and contribute to our understanding of PTSD.

Risk factors suggested for intensified responses include preceding problems within the family unit or community structure and orphan status prior to the disaster. Indeed, the symptoms of PTSD in Sri Lankan children affected by both civil war and a natural disaster with the tsunami was as high as 40%, with the cumulative exposure to trauma and stress being a significant predictor for adverse mental health outcomes (Neuner et al. 2006).

The United States is a frontrunner in global topics such as women’s rights and environmental issues. However, when discussing mental illness the United States chooses to look at the subject in a mindset that is stuck in the 1950’s using the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy. The federal government has only begun to recently talk about mental illness and its effects in the media. Yet, when they do this they choose to cover topics such as ‘gun rights’ with mental illness, while the real topic of conversation is the future treatment for those with mental illness, and how the United States plans on eliminating the stigma that surrounds mental health.

Mad in America was written by Robert Whitaker, a medical journalist, whose primary objective when authoring this book was to examine the types of psychiatric methods used for treating mental illness throughout American history, as well as their ethics and safety. His book is broken up into four different sections, each covering a certain timeframe.

The emphasis on the dangerousness of the mentally ill has only helped fueled the stigma against mental illness in America, harming those who need help the most. Although the stigma against mental illness in America is perhaps comparatively weak when compared to the stigma in developing countries or Asian countries, it is strong enough where “despite the availability of effective evidence-based treatment, about 40% of individuals with serious mental illness do not receive care and many who begin an intervention fail to complete it” (Association for Psychological

The earthquake that rocked Kobe, Japan in 1995 veered Japanese culture into another direction in regard to mental healthcare. Remembered as the Great Hanshin Earthquake, the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck # regions and claimed the lives of 6,400 (Baba et al.,1996). At least 55,000 people were placed in shelters, and among them included mothers, children, the elderly, and disabled (Baba et al.,1996). The demographics mentioned are specified because of research suggesting each group had pre-existing conditions or heightened stress that became exacerbated due to disaster-related trauma. As emotional suffering became so vast, many in positions of power could not overlook the emotional devastation caused by the disaster. However, they continued

“Americans increasingly associate mental illness with the potential for violence” said Rick Callahan in his study entitled More Americans Associating Mental Illness with Violence. These stereotypes are what propitiate inequality with people who suffer from mental diseases. Clare Nullis points out in her article World Health Organization Urges More Attention to Mental Health Problems that “One in four people in the world will be affected by mental health or brain disorders during their lives, but few of them will seek or receive help.” These diseases effect nearly 25% of the world population, and these stereotypes force these people to feel ashamed of their conditions. John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men demonstrates the 1930s problem of poverty and how places around the world neglect those who suffer from mental illness and pass judgment on them because of their disabilities.

In her essay, “The Globalization of Eating Disorders,” Susan Bordo informs her audience of the growing trends in eating disorders. Through her argument, Bordo illustrates the cruel identity of body-image distortion syndrome while she searches for a solution to the eating-disorder problem by looking to its birthplace in culture. Making use of several examples and scenarios, facts and statistics, and appeals to pathos and logos to construct her argument, Bordo shows a strong intent on eradicating the growing crisis in a reasonably sound argument.

More than 130,000 people lost their lives to the catastrophe, and many were exposed to an intense degree of stressors and trauma-inducers that led to emotional disturbance among victims, adolescents in particular, after direct exposure to the tsunami (Centers for Disease Control and prevention [CDCP], 2006; Frankenberg, Friedman, Gillespie, Ingwersen, Pynoos, Rifai, Sikoki, Steinberg, Sumantri, Suriastini, and Thomas, 2008; Musa, Draman, Jeffrey, S., Jeffrey, I., Abdullah, Halim, Wahab, Mukhtar, Johari, Rameli, Midin, Jaafar, Das, Sidi, 2014). Thus, the hypothesis of this paper is that the proximity to the affected area of Aceh significantly increased the severity of PTSD symptoms and, therefore, decreasing the resilience rates.

The United States has their own view on mental illness when compared to other developed countries. The developed countries that were analyzed with the United States were England and France. Our research question was “Does the United States view mental illness differently than other developed countries?” The research that I conducted was over the policies and ideologies of mental illness in the United States.

Hudson, Hirripi, Pope and Kessler’s (2007) research indicates that the average onset of anorexia nervosa is 19 years old, but can develop as young as 14 years old, and women are more likely to develop anorexia nervosa than men. Some studies indicate that anorexia affects whites more than Hispanics, African Americans and Asians; however it crosses cultures and socially diverse populations (APA, 2013). According to the DSM 5, Anorexia nervosa predominantly occurs in developed, high-income countries such as in the United States, as well as in many European countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Individuals who present with weight concerns that develop eating and feeding disorders varies substantially across cultural contexts. One study indicated that that “the ‘spread’ of Western values regarding slimness (fat phobia) is primarily responsible for the development of anorexia nervosa in non-Western societies” (Rieger et al., 2001). Rieger et al (2001) also looked at the medical records of Asian women and found the absence of fat phobia; the rationale for dietary restriction was commonly related to other external factors. The WHO (2004) also reports that female athletes, ballet students, fashion models and culinary students are at risk of developing anorexia nervosa; unhealthy dieting and society’s

The symptoms of mental disorders are found in all nations and in all cultures; there are recognizable symptoms that are common worldwide. Mental health researchers have not yet been able to determine whether culture bound syndromes are indicative of one or more possibilities that include distinct disorders that exist only in specific cultures, and reflect different ways in which individuals from different cultures express mental illness, as well as reflecting different ways in which the social and cultural environment interact with genes to produce disorders, or any combination of these. (pp. 101)