He Said, She Said Mental Illness “What illness? My child? My friend? Not possible!”. Despite parents wanting the best for their children, and friends looking forward to their peer’s success, some experience difficulty accepting why their loved one has a mental illness. Brenda Novak’s novel “Hello Again” focuses on the mind of Evelyn, a clinical psychologist, discovering new information on her patients, specifically Dr. Lyman Bishop. Jaimie Byrne’s article “Normal teenage behaviour vs. early warning signs of mental illness” compares and contrasts normal teenage behavior with mentally ill behavior. Finally, Mental Health America’s article “Depression in Teens” mentions possible causes of depression, lists treatment options, and recommends methods …show more content…
Lyman Bishop’s sister, would give Evelyn if she had the mental capacity to understand the situation. From Brenda Novak’s novel “Hello Again”, Evelyn instinctively knew Dr. Lyman Bishop was sociopath. According to the novel, he grew up with a hostile family environment, and was forced to move out with his sister, Beth, who is mentally disabled, after his mother’s death. Beth did not have the mental capacity to help her brother, let alone understand his situation, and therefore could not seek help for him. Jaimie Byrne wrote on the issue of mental illness as well, through the article “Normal teenage behaviour vs. early warning signs of mental illness”. She compares normal and abnormal behavior in teens, and leaves ignorance as no excuse for missing the illness. She mentions an especially crucial point-- the blindness of pride and denial. As written in the article, “Pride and denial can often get in our way of accepting that there is a problem with our child” (Byrne). Simply, the idea of turning a blind eye to protect interests is shown, with parents and family members projecting a better image of their loved one as intelligent or talented rather then sacrificing their own reputation to help them. Likewise, Mental Health America reported on the issue of mental illness in teens, titled “Depression In Teens” . Without doubt, it explains the idea of family members associating one type of behavior with a certain illness, however it …show more content…
Contrary to the first perspective, the sufferer may feel differently about their friends or family turning a blind eye to their diagnosis. Dr. Lyman Bishop from Brenda Novak’s “Hello Again” novel is a key point in the discussion. He blames his mother, father, and even his own sister for not getting him help, but yet he is reluctant to call himself a sociopath. To add to the previous point, Jaimie Byrne discusses ignoring the illness, and making symptoms worse. As stated in the article “Normal teenage behaviour vs. early warning signs of mental illness”, “Ignoring the problem does not make it go away and can contrarily make the problem worse. As with any illness, not getting the appropriate treatment prolongs the symptoms, which will likely get worse with time” (Byrne). With the sufferer’s perception, the friends and family defending the sufferer are purposely protecting their own interests instead of seeking help for their friend or family member. Mental Health America remarks, “To make matters worse, teens are bombarded by conflicting messages from parents, friends and society” (Mental Health America). The mixed messages are causing issues between sufferer and possible help, which causes a lack of trust in turn. The result-- teens will not trust their friends and family enough to go to them for help, which creates
It is not uncommon to hear stories about a teenager experiencing mood swings and rebelling against those in authority. Nor is it uncommon to experience general sadness or anxiety in high school and college. However, it is often difficult to tell the difference between normal teenage angst and clinical depression. It is not commonly known that there has recently been a staggering rise of depression in adolescents. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in twelve adolescents in the United States suffer from depression, which is 8.3 % of the teenage population. In order to combat the problem of adolescent depression, it is essential that parents take an active role in their adolescent’s life by both acknowledging and
This Case Study will be undertaken as a group activity and is designed to deepen your knowledge about mental illnesses, and to test your understanding about the nursing care of people suffering from such conditions. It will also assist you to express your ideas through class presentation and in writing.
With more mental distress, they want to isolate. This vicious cycle relegates many people with severe mental illness to a life of social segregation and isolation. The public may avoid them altogether. In order for people to flourish, they need to be around others and in different social situations to be shown how to function in
“Come find me when you decide to not have a broken arm.” “You don’t look like you have a terminal disease. You’re just saying that to get attention.” “Can’t you just try to not get sick?” Nobody would actually say these horrible things to someone with a physical disease, and yet we find it okay to say it to someone with a mental disease. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) every year, about 42.5 million American adults which is about 18.2% of the total adult population in the United States suffer from mental illness. 56% of these people never did not receive treatment for their mental illness, and suffered
Mental illness refers to many disorders that affect your mood, thinking, and behaviour. There are many different types of mental illnesses with different severities such as depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and addictive behaviour. Having a mental illness is so common in Canada, 1 in 5 people encounter some degree of it. Many of your friends and family may be suffering from some form of mental illness without you knowing it. This can be because it is at a very early and week stage, they are on their medication, or they are doing a good job at hiding it from you. People often hide their illness to prevent being judged and treated differently from their loved ones. This can be a problem as their illness could worsen and cause long term irreversible damages. Some of our society doesn’t respect people with mental illnesses as before, people with this illness were called crazy and they were told they had a disease. This may be a reason people still don’t feel comfortable telling people close to them.
There are still many societies that view people with mental health problems as threatening or unstable. These attitudes often cause stigma and discrimination towards people with mental health problems. Many people who make these assumptions about people with mental health problems are often uneducated. Social workers today educate and help families that may may be struggling with this disease. Mental health disorders affect different people and are more prone to exist in areas where help can be found or is not affordable. Mental health disorders are often frowned upon by people because they do not understand it. Many people live throughout their lives not getting the help they need because of stigma on this topic. As a society Mental health diseases should be identified as problem that can be fixed and not be an identification for the person it is affecting.
There is a major stigma around mental health in our society, this often leads people with mental illness to believe that it is their problem and that if they tell someone else they will get ridiculed rather than supported. However mental health is a societal problem and should be treated as such. Mental illness is the leading cause of death among teenagers in Canada, but people tend to ignore it rather than face the issue. Because facing the issue would mean acknowledging the
For example, three in four young people fear their friend’s reactions when they talk about their mental health problems and so it is easy to understand why the majority (about one half) of teenagers don’t reach out and receive treatment. The sole fear of carrying discrimination and stigma as their shadow will and has made mentally ill youths stop doing things they like and isolate themselves from society. In order to cope with or recover from emotional disorders, people must reach out for professional help; or else these illnesses will intervene more and more with everyday life. However, teens are at a fragile stage of their life. This, as well as stigmatization, is likely to make a teen hold their tongue and never get the help they require. Furthermore, a person’s adolescent years tend to define the traits they will carry into their adulthood. When teenagers resort to silencing their condition and separating themselves from the rest of the world because of stigma, they are making a mold that will become difficult to break when they transition into adulthood. The tragic truth is that this “mold”, shaped by withdrawal, hopefulness, and other unhealthy ways of going about life, are symptoms of
The stigma of mental illness can sometimes make people feel embarrassed to be around, or to just stay as far away from people who suffer with such illness. In two studies in the UK with a ten year gap there was little change recorded in the statistics, ”over 80% endorsing the statement that “most people are embarrassed by mentally ill people”, and about 30% agreeing “I am embarrassed by mentally ill persons”’ (Huxley 1993). One such label to label such people is maniaphobia which means the fear of being mentally ill and the mentally ill which in some extreme cases could explain their situation and their possible fear. Which makes the peoples who are mentally ill or have mental illness are less likely to tell close family and friends which could help them understand their situation better. As well as help them get treatments or a diagnosis to help with peace of mind. Sometimes they are told but refuse to believe that such things exist or that they are weaker than others or selfish. The mentally ill sometimes stigmatize themselves, “there are numerous personal accounts of psychiatric illness, where shame overrides even the most extreme of symptoms,” (Peter Byrne). They feel like people won’t accept them or that they are somehow different so they lock it away and sometimes don’t
I learned early on that there are many stigmas in the world against individuals with a mental health diagnosis. Those stigmas do not just affect the individual with the diagnosis; in fact those stigmas affect the family as a whole. I remember when I was in fifth grade a friend of mine told me she was unable to come to my birthday party. Her father did not think it was a good idea to associate with someone like my father or my family. Her father also felt that we should no longer be friends since one day I would become like my father, crazy, it is genetic after
Many parents struggle with kids thinking that they are not good enough, Sarah McQuilkin is one of those parents. Her daughter has been showing symptoms of self doubt since she was two years old. “Now at seven, Sarita says, ‘Mommy, the world will be better off without me.’” Parents are left baffled, no one really knows how to react to such a comment by their little girl. It is not only the moms that are affected by this though, Mr. McQuilkin states, “Without treatment, I see my daughter as killing herself.” It was quoted that he was weeping while saying that. Since sweet Sarita has been on antidepressants, her self doubts come much less frequently and her parents are no longer worried about her killing herself. Janet Wozniak is a psychiatrist from Harvard Medical School and she says that she understands why a parent might be afraid to medicate their child “but parents also need to consider that there may be a downside to not medicating and missing an opportunity to interrupt the course of a serious illness” in her opinion. If these types of problems are continually being overlooked, adults could completely miss the seriousness behind their children’s condition. Even though, some believe that since there are too many risks in over or underdosing patients,
From personal experience, I had a couple friends who have gone through various mental illnesses like depression and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). There may not been a scientific or logical approach towards analysing one’s mental health. It does not make it anymore real. I have witnessed a bunch of people go through this. They were known to be pretty normal and easy going to others. When it came to me, they did not have to put up their facade. After they confided in me with the truth, it only became clearer just how upset and depressed they really were. At times, they do not really need to say anything. You can sense the vibe of self hatred and extremely thoughts just pulsing through their brain. Society does not need any scientific evidence to prove that someone is feeling emotions of resentment, sadness, anger, or grief. We can see through one’s behaviour; Maybe that person may actually reveal their true thoughts to the world. Nevertheless, mental illness is a real problem. Having the stigma that mental disorders might not exist can only stop those suffering from getting the treatment that they need. Removing the thought that mental illness is merely an “illusion” can go a long
However, from examining the text, I have learned that there are ways to test for depression. From this, my reaction was very surprised. This article definitely opened my eyes to more information on the topic of teenage depression. The article has given me the impression that depression is even worse than I thought, which would be agreeable between Dr. Chung and Dr. Frances. It makes me wonder how many ways one can discover they have the mental illness, and how they can benefit from screening or other different methods. I actually greatly admire this piece or literature, as it is very informing. As mentioned before, I, the reader, am left wanting to gather more information about the subject and I found myself researching on my own. This insightful article has given me excellent knowledge that I will be able to use even in the
Another issue is that people don’t know how to help themselves and they don’t want to try and help themselves. There has been a lot of stigma placed on people that have mental disorders. People may see them as weak or crazy and so the person might try to hide that they have the issue. There have been some problems in the past about mental health care and professional
One of the many problems are that when most people think of the word ‘Mental Illness’ they think of a psycho shackled in a mental hospital and misunderstand the person. Unfortunately some parents or people might think similar to this and neglect the person making the illness worse! Even some victims of illness might even think like due to mindset “mental disorders are rare and “happen to someone else."”(Source 1)