Mental Illness And Its Effects On Society

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.

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.

Although about 450 million people in the world currently are suffering from a mental illness, many untreated, the topic still remains taboo in modern society (Mental Health). For years, people with mental illnesses have been shut away or institutionalized, and despite cultural progression in many areas, mental illnesses are still shamed and rarely brought to light outside of the psychiatric community. The many different forms in which mental illness can occur are incredibly prevalent in the world today, and there is a substantial debate about the way that they should be handled. Some people are of the opinion that mental illness is merely a variance in perception and that it either can be fixed through therapy or should not be treated at

Years ago mental illness was perhaps the most misinterpreted and mistreated illness. It is a disorder that is characterized by disturbances in a person’s thoughts, emotions, or behavior. At one time it was a sickness that no one would dare talk about. The humiliation was so strong it was looked upon as a crime. Patients would be “put away” not to be treated but to protect them from the community. It was an illness to be ashamed of and was thought to be brought upon by patients themselves. Mental illness refers to a wide variety of disorders, ranging from bipolar disorder or depression, to post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia. Each one of these disorders can cause anywhere from mild distress to those that impair a person’s ability to function in normal day-to-day life. In the movie “Call Me Crazy: A Five Film”, it looks at how each individual copes with mental illness and succeeding in everyday situations. By comparing similarities in the film with the differences about mental illness in ordinary life we can understand how the movie at times exaggerated mental disorders.

Mental illness has had a huge impact on our society. It affects the ways we perceive others and ourselves. Mental illness has likely existed for a very long time, likely it predates humans. But in humans very long existence, we did find about mental illness rather early in history, but our grasp was not firm on what it was, mesopotamia believed it had to do with their gods, and their treatment was prayer. This knowledge was probably lost by the middle ages, as they couldn’t explain the phenomena away with gods, so they generally expressed the worst cases as witchcraft. But regardless of its importance in real life, it also plays an important role in the story the yellow wallpaper, as it shows the effect of mental disorders on people.

Schizophrenia is a considered a severely chronic, disabling brain disease. Sufferers that have schizophrenia tend to experience hallucinations, delusions and sometimes distorted reality. When an individual is diagnosed with schizophrenia, they are physically inept to acting out “everyday functions”. With careful research, it is now known nearly one percent of the American population develops schizophrenia. Unfortunately, that portion is about two million american citizens and the numbers are slowly growing. Schizophrenia affects men and women equally, the disorder often appears in men earlier, usually in the late teens or early thirties (Barbour 14).

Schizophrenia is a severe brain disorder in which it is hard to distinguish the difference between what is real and what is not. Schizophrenia has been found throughout recorded history but was not considered a worthy medical condition until the eighteenth century. It is also considered today a leading public health problem that has enormous personal and economic costs worldwide. Schizophrenia involves a disturbance of thought, perception, emotion, movement, and behavior. The symptoms vary across different patients as well as across time but it’s consistently considered severe and requires lifelong treatment. Schizophrenia is categorized into five different subcategories. The causes of schizophrenia is disputed among experts and there are many different theories regarding the etiology of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is one of the largest most delirious disorders that affect individuals all over the world. An individual diagnosed with schizophrenia loses touch of reality, confused by the world within their head and the outside world a.k.a. reality. If left untreated schizophrenia could have a largely negative impact on the individual and others around them. Because of this it is highly important that schizophrenics get the treatment they need, such as antipsychotic drugs, to get back to their normal, healthier lives.

There are no reliable articles that have a conservative worldview against mental illness. Most people who are against mental illnesses are against it because of the following reasons: mental illnesses are not always visible and they do not realize they are very complex and vary from person to person. People who struggle with mental disorders, often mask their issues because of the stigma around being mental ill. There is also a lot of people who do not know that they are mental ill and will never know until professional diagnosed. A lot of people who are against it are primarily ignorant and just need to be educated on mental illnesses.

Deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill was, and continues to be, an ill-conceived concept. Mental illness is not theoretical, it is a very real and debilitating condition for the individual who suffers from such an illness. Mental illness is a disability which makes an individual unable to attend school, pursue a career, maintain a job or care for a family. Mental illness has ruined not only the lives of the people it has affected, but those who care for the victims of this disease. Mental illness is treatable with medication and the services of mental health workers, such as therapists. Mental illness affects not only adults but children. For example, thirty-one percent (31%) of homeless adults have a combination of mental illness. Approximately, one in five adults in the U.S. or 18.5% of the adult population experiences mental illness in a given year. Approximately one in 25 adults in the U.S. or 4.2% of the adult population experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities. Approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 or 21.4% of youth experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children aged 8–15, the estimate is 13% of this age group. 1.1% of adults in the U.S. live with schizophrenia. 2.6% of adults in the U.S. live with bipolar disorder. 6.9% of adults in the U.S., had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. 18.1% of

Mental illness is a prominent problem in today’s troublesome world. Each day many people are diagnosed with a mental illness, most commonly depression. The human mind becomes tarnished when a person has a mental illness, and often the illness takes over a person’s life completely. Mental illness is a serious problem and often goes untreated or misdiagnosed. The darkness within a person’s mind is one of the toughest aspects of life for people to conquer and many lose themselves in the fight. To further understand mental illness, it would be easiest to peer into the life of someone with one of these illnesses. For example, taking a

Everyone is different in society. There are special individuals, which are affected by mental health illnesses. Mental health issues can affect society both negatively and positively. There are cultures that treat these individuals like the reincarnations of gods. On the other side, there are cultures that isolate these individuals and look for cures to these pathologies. Mental health illnesses are important because they have to be studied to understand their cause, whether it may be biological or environmental. These issues are important because like every type of illness they have to be delicately studied, focusing on treatments to either cure them or reduce the symptoms of the pathology. These people were either conflicted with the ideals of society or they were praised by it. Cultures, which didn’t accept them, closed them up into asylums. Patients inside these facilities were brutally used as guinea pigs for their experiments. The way these people were treated shows how cruel and ignorant people were to the unknown. By learning from histories mistakes we can move forward in improving our society and achieve greatness.

Mental illness today is a social crisis that began with the onset of deinstitutionalization leading to a massive increase within our prison population. People with mental illnesses often cycle repeatedly through courtrooms, jails, and prisons that are ill-equipped to address their needs and, in particular, to provide adequate treatment. There are also many other factors in prisons that have negative effects on mental health such as overcrowding, violence, solitude, lack of privacy, isolation from social networks and family. Upon release into society, they are left with nowhere to turn for help or to receive treatment, leaving them as a potential danger to society and themselves. Our current mental health system is a

This paper will analyze the problem of mental illness in American society. Firstly, this paper will discuss why mental illness is such a large problem. Access to equal treatment is not available for all. Therefore, when not addressed or treated, mental illness can lead to further social issues such as gun violence, suicide, homelessness, and incarceration. This paper will also address three government policy solutions that help treat the severely mentally ill, ease their transitions back into their communities after treatments, and prevent further social problems.

All mental illnesses fit into five main categories; anxiety disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia/psychotic disorders, eating disorders, and dementias. These illnesses have crippling effects on a person’s life. They change someone’s physical health, how they interact with the world, and how they perceive and address situations. An occurrence that would have no effect on someone with no mental issue, distorts the view of someone with a mental illness, into either a negative or positive issue, and therefore changes how they handle it.