Mental Illness: A Personal Statement

The social problem I have chosen to write about is mental illness. This problem is important to talk about “because of the number of people it affects, the difficulty of defining and identifying mental disorders, and the ways in which mental illness is treated” (Kendall, 2013, p. 227). “About 57.7 million people, or one in four adults, in the United States suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder” (Kendall, 2013, p. 229). “Many of these illnesses begin in childhood or adolescence, with the most common problems being anxiety disorder, mood disorders, impulse-control disorders, and substance abuse disorders” (Kendall, 2013, p. 229). I chose this topic because I wanted to learn more about how mental illness is a social problem and I have been interested in learning more about mental illnesses and how to help people with mental disorders.

Stephanie, I agree with your statement about the advantage of diagnosing someone with a mental illness in regards to improving their educational outcome. For instance, if a child is diagnosed with autism at an early age, they can receive the early intervention they need in order to help them learn and develop as children their age. Also, about you statement about your real world experience with your client. In my opinion, they may have said that statement not intentionally, but because of what they believe they should have said based on what they have learned by other people around

On October 22, 2015, David P. Gersch, Stephen E. Fenn, Victoria Killion, and Nicole B. Neumann (Arnold & Porter LLP) Washington Law Firm; and Witold Walczak & Paloma Wu (ACLU) of Pennsylvania filed a federal class action lawsuit J.H. v. Dallas, on behalf of hundreds of individual with severe mental illness against The Department of Health and Human Services. These individuals were deemed unfit to stand trial, and awaiting “competency restoration treatment” in jails and solitary confinement. In these circumstances individuals would normally be placed in two state hospitals, Norristown in East Pennsylvania and Torrance in West Pennsylvania to receive needed mental health care, then for most cases to stand trial (ACLU, 2016) (Smith, 2016). However, due to the lack of treatment resources and accessibility, these newly categorized

I first attended Hereford High school (Monkton, MD, 1954). I took an AP Psychology class and an AP English class. After graduating from high school I then went on to attend a Community College at CCBC Essex. I was accepted into CCBC’s Honor Program. My expertise is in psychology because I want to help people who have mental illnesses and feel they have no one to talk to about things going on in their everyday lives that are affecting their mental health and their day to day life.

Mental illness is common and most people have experienced it at some point in their life, either through a family member or neighbor. In some cases, people with mental illness try to hide it because they don’t know how others will react. However, for others the signs and symptoms are so evident that is difficult to disregard it. The question is, what is mental illness? According to Merriam-Webster.com mental illness is a wide range of conditions (e.g. depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, or panic disorder) that affects mood, thinking, and behavior. There are several factors that can cause an individual to develop a mental disorder. Two of the possible causes are genetic inheritance or life experiences such as stress and/or trauma. Thus, the individuals that ignore the signs and symptoms of this disorder can become a problem for society and to

As a child I was always asking questions, constantly craving to know how people worked, why they worked that way and how to fix people when they were broken. A particular fascination of mine was how people could consume medication and it would appear in a matter of time, be entirely fine. My curiosity followed me throughout my maturity; this, resulting in me being fascinated in the biology of disease and health, the distribution of drugs, the chemistry regarding the process of manufacturing the remedies for disease, and the ability to describe and explain this knowledge. I believe this is essentially Pharmacy.

A club that I am part of is the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) on campus at Keuka College, which is a national organization made up of local affiliates, state organizations and volunteers. A goal that NAMI at Keuka College has is to bring awareness to mental illness and to end the stigma surrounding mental illness. A specific task is to find creative ways to spread awareness of mental illness on Keuka College. An objective of NAMI is create a stigma free campus, over the next year.

The support of family and friends are vital to living with mental illness. However, it can be a difficult task for family members and friends to relate and understand a loved one’s mental illness. As someone who suffers from mental illness and attempted time and time again to explain to love ones what I was going through, was a difficult task. I finally realized, they can’t understand something they have never experienced and speaking with a psychiatrist or even a therapist can make it worse for a loved one. The scientific terms along

He grabbed some hoops, staves and some tools and sat down again on his stool and started pounding away, willing the wood to bend and curve how he wanted it to. This barrel felt like it took longer than the first to complete, since he ran into some trouble when the wood started to split in the middle of a stave. He then had to cut a new piece of wood and bend it according to scale.

Mental illness unfortunately, is a disease that overlaps normality. Every person has a moment of oddness where for some reason, a stimulation triggers an abnormal reaction. Hospital staff may have had a hard time distinguishing between the “sane” and the “insane” because many of the symptoms could have been exaggerated, making it seem as the patients behavior was derived from the mental illness. On the other hand the behavior could have just been one of those moments where a person responded oddly to a stimulation.

that info to me, at least not at this point in time if you don't

Drawbacks for certain populations. m: One disadvantage of sober living homes is that certain populations have a lower chance of maintaining sobriety in them. According to 5, individuals with a dual diagnosis may find sober living homes to be a more challenging and stressful setting; they would be better able to cope with more calm and undisturbed surroundings (Polcin & Korcha, 2015) (108Z). m: People with dual disorders and other serious psychiatric disorders may have specific needs that would require special accommodations. Furthermore, According to 4, people with more serious psychiatric disorders may require more personal assistance from a trained staff who is available to assist them with their daily living. It may also be

There are benefits of having an involved family in the treatment of one of their own who have a mental illness and a family can also present a barrier to seeking treatment or in the recovery process. The majority of those with a mental illness cite that their families, not doctors, are the ones that inspire hope and belief in their recovery pathway (Kaakinen et al., 2015). Nursing should build on this hope and involve the family as much as possible in care and treatment

I hail from a country where practicing the mental health profession was subject to grave stigmatization, partly due to a lack of insight into mental illness and less effort made to probe mental health disorders. I credit my early interest in psychiatry to my sister who unknowingly played a vital role. She was going through a tough phase where she couldn't take the burden of keeping pace with her peers in academics, and she attempted suicide; but, she didn't succeed. My parents took her to a psychiatrist after which we saw tremendous improvement when she overcame her depression. The therapy helped my sister immensely as the psychiatrist listened to her problems attentively, understood them to the core, after which he counseled her about building

Based on a social worker’s report, JD’s father was hospitalized for multiple suicide attempts and was diagnosed with schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations. Although, JD’s father had undergone several treatments to control the symptoms, none were effective due to lack of