Mental Illness: A Short Story

In early American history, individuals with mental illnesses have been neglected and suffered inhuman treatments. Some were beaten, lobotomized, sterilized, restrained, in addition to other kinds of abuse. Mental illness was thought to be the cause of supernatural dreadful curse from the Gods or a demonic possession. Trepanning (the opening of the skull) is the earliest known treatment for individuals with mental illness. This practice was believed to release evil spirits (Kemp, 2007). Laws were passed giving power to take custody over the mentally ill including selling their possessions and properties and be imprisoned (Kofman, 2012). The first psychiatric hospital in the U.S. was the Pennsylvania Hospital where mentally ill patients were left in cold basements because they were considered not affected by cold or hot environments and restraint with iron shackles. They were put on display like zoo animals to the public for sell by the doctors (Kofmen, 2012). These individuals were punished and isolated and kept far out of the eyes of society, hidden as if they did not exist. They were either maintained by living with their families and considered a source of embarrassment or institutionalized

Forget all the stereotypes of mental illness. It has no face. It has no particular victim. Mental illness can affect an individual from any background and the black community is no exception. African Americans sometimes experience even more severe forms of mental health conditions because of unmet needs and barriers to treatment. According to the Office of Minority Health, African Americans are 20 percent more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. That’s why UGA third year Majenneh Sengbe is taking action as the co-founder of her upcoming organization Black Minds Daily.

Through the course of time, mental illnesses have always been in existence due to varying factors and causes. However, as time has passed, the perceptions and available treatments for mental illnesses have also changed as new technology was developed. By looking at the treatments and perceptions of mental illnesses in the early 20th century, we can learn how to properly treat and diagnose not only mental disorders but also other conditions as well as show us the importance of review boards and controlled clinical trials.

Mental illness is a psychiatric disorder which affect the person’s thoughts, behavior and mood pattern. Mental illness has different types such as tension or anxiety, nervousness, depression, schizophrenia, etc. Here I want to discuss about Elyn Saks. In her video” A tell of mental illness – from the inside” she explained her story. She was chronic schizophrenic patient since her childhood. She spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospital. She was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia and prognosis of “grave”. She had experienced about delusions and hallucinations. She explained delusions are fixed and false beliefs and hallucinations are false sensory experiences. She felt these type of experiences such as “hallucination” and “word salad”.

I enjoyed every bit of this Introduction to Psychology class. I put together many things about myself and my own life that I didn’t notice before. Now that I have been introduced to the realm of psychology I have a much better understanding of the reasons of behavior that is around me every day.

Deviant behavior is something that is usually disapproved and it is when someone goes against the ‘norms’ of society. According to the American Psychiatric Association (2015), mental illness is technically a health condition involving changes in behavior, emotion, or thinking. So where does mental illness come in to play with being a deviant behavior? Well, shockingly mental illness and deviance go hand in hand quite often. Everyone who is considered a ‘deviant’ may not be mentally ill, however, majority of people diagnosed with a mental illness are considered deviant. When sociologists study deviance, they are also studying mental illness. Mental illness is something that clearly will imply some sort of deviation from the defined norms of society.

When thinking of mental illness, what image pops into your head? An unstable old lady in restraints talking to herself? A pre-teen harming themselves in a bathroom stall? Norman Bates? The Joker? All these inaccurate examples stem from the medias representation of mental illness. This is an important issue to address as, society has been fed these wrongful depictions for decades and it can be challenging to overcome and shift these presentations (Uwujaren). The representation of mental ill health in film, exploits mental illness especially when it is a negative depiction. This can have detrimental effects to real individuals who suffer from mental illnesses (Uwujaren). Horror films in particular spew a certain tone and mood; many times the villain suffers from mental illness, when this occurs audiences immediately associate mental ill health with these characters (Goodwin204). Stigmatization and stereotypes are conjured by the film industry that leave audiences believing all mental ill people are like what they see in films. The film industry repeatedly uses mental illness to portray negative characters, this can be detrimental in reality.

[b]" [i] God loves all creatures.[/i] Can you honestly say you believe that?"[/b] If god loved humans as the Priest thought the celestial being did why would he create monsters capable of devouring them? It was a nice theory it really was and who was she to pop his bubble. People regardless of species would always choose the path that got them further in life and that path was littered with violence and corruption especially now that the world's power had gone from human to vampire. Violence and power went hand in hand and she would have gotten nowhere without either of them if it was her lot in life to continue that never-ending loop of bloodshed then she would proudly do so.

"I hear voices" my brother shouted as he hysterically clutched his ears. He showed signs of anger and confusion as we did not understand what was happening. My family and I were in shock because here was my brother a retired army veteran going through a psychotic episode. After retirement, he was supposed to embark on a new chapter in his life but that was halted by his diagnosis. As a family, our lack of understanding led us to believe that my brother might have abused drugs or was possessed. I was able to convince my parents to seek medical help because of my studies in psychology as an undergraduate student. During the period of my brother’s recovery I realized the importance of mental health which motivated me to pursue a career in psychiatry.

You enter the vortex, a spinning tunnel in the carnival fun house, the neon lights rotating around you, the music creating an outer space like ambience. You try to take a step, but it feels as if you are wearing heavy winter boots, the weight making it hard to lift your foot off of the ground. When you finally take a step, the ground begins to sway and you grab the railing to support yourself from falling over. As you step out of the tunnel, you realize it was all an optical illusion, and if you had just closed your eyes, you could’ve walked straight through the tunnel. I step into this tunnel on a daily basis; in fact, all POTS patients do.

According to NewsWeekly.com 1 in every 5 american adults have a mental illness. This may not seem like a whole ton of people, but these people's lives are affected everyday with everything they do. People come in all different shapes and sizes. Anyone can be anything, so why should your mental state affect what society lets you do. People with mental illnesses should get the opportunities to create a life of their own. All lives matter and just because someone needs a little extra help doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have rights.

What is a mental illness classified as? Medical professionals often state that mental illness “considered a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome experienced by a person and marked by distress, disability, or the risk of suffering disability or loss of freedom” (Varcarolis, 2009, p. 12). According to the Nation Alliance of Mental Illness in the U.S. alone there a 1 in 5 chance a person is likely to suffer from a mental illness, this roughly translates to 43.8 million or 18.5% of adult Americans.

Mental illness has existed since the dawn of humanity, but has since been perceived and understood in various ways. This essay will examine the contemporary現代人definition of mental illness and how the definition is shaped more by the contemporary society that creates it rather than by real experience and understanding of the state itself. Unavoidably, this examination of a largely misunderstood subject leads to an investigation of the societal and philosophical influences causing the misunderstanding. Indeed, since the subject of mental health and illness is inextricably and directly related to the nature of reality, the nature of mental illness must be considered not in isolation but in conjunction with the

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.

The topics covered in these few weeks were “what is madness?”, “psychoanalytic and psychodynamic approaches towards madness” and the “biomedical perspectives on mental illness”.