Mental Illness Essay

According to the Mayo Clinic, a mental illness can be defined as a disorder, or multiple disorders that can all be on a spectrum, that can affect mood, cognitive abilities, and the way one acts. Mayo Clinic’s definition also includes the specification that, to be considered a mental illness, the symptoms generally effect a person’s ability to function in common life situations, all while causing quite a bit of stress. It becomes obvious that these types of diseases can be just as damaging as physical illnesses, hence the drastic need for treatment and continuing advancements in the methods of treatment.

“Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person 's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life”.

On April 20, 1990, a 54 year old white male named Alan Matheney was sentenced to death for guilty of burglary and the murder of his ex-wife in Indiana. Strong evidence suggested that Mr. Matheney suffered from extremely severe mental disorders. On April 21, 2005, Bill Benefiel was convicted and sentenced to death because of the murder, rape and confinement of Delores Wells. Experts testified that Benefiel suffered from “a mental disease or defect” (“Mental Illness Past Cases”). Such tragedies caused by mental illness not only occur in America. Moreover, mental illness has become a increasing concern for public health all over the world (Subramaniam et al. 149).

Mental health disorder can be defined as a health problem that significantly affects how a person feels, thinks, behaves, and interacts with other people. Mental health problems include the mental ill health that can be experienced temporarily as a reaction to the stresses of life. Mental disorder cause a great deal of suffering to those experiencing them, as well as their families and friends (NHS, 2014). Mental health illnesses can affect people of all ages, and it can be triggered by physical, social, environmental and genetic factors. Everyone is different, and because of this some people are more at risk of experiencing mental illness than others. Mental disorder are classified into two different types and degrees of severity, these are, psychosis and neurosis.

People who suffer from a mental illness may not look 'sick' and others might depending on the severity of the illness and possibly how long they have gone without being treated properly. A mental illness may have been inherited, life experiences may cause trauma or family history of mental health issues. Some may tell people that a "mental illness" is only a stage and they will get over it, although there are many signs that show early development of some sort of illness. There is a various amount of mental illnesses but they are all different in one way or another, some examples are; depression, schizophrenia, manic depression (bipolar disorder), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some may say that a mental illness and neurological disorders may be the same, but they are not. "As scientists continue to investigate the brains of people who have mental illnesses, they are learning that mental illness is associated

Mental illness is a health condition that affects a person's thinking, feeling and behavior. Generally it is not the result of only one event, but a combination of genetics, environment and lifestyle. Its symptoms can differ according to the type of disorder, however to better understand how it works, we have to look at the effects culture and society have on it.

In our world today there are many individuals, who live or know of someone who is living with some form of mental illness. These individuals have many barriers placed upon them by society and have fallen victim to negative social stigmas. Individuals who are experiencing a mental crisis whether it may be a result of a diagnosed mental illness or an erratic episode brought on by mental instability have had negative social stigmas placed on them from almost entire societies. These negative stigmas come from the lack of knowledge and negative information, which has been placed, on individuals who indeed suffer from some form of mental illness. Due to the lack of facilities put in place in order to help these individuals, it results in them roaming the streets, becoming homeless, and sometimes even committing crimes that they did not want to. Due to the negative stigmas, which are associated with individuals with mental illness, many people in society act in rude manners that seem extremely harsh and distant. Police services are also not properly trained to deal with a person in crisis, because of this it leaves an individual in crisis at significant risk of being seriously harmed or even killed by a police officer. In Canada alone there have been various cases in which an individual suffering from a mental illness were killed by the police. In many of these cases the situations could have been handled differently, where police officers could have avoided using unnecessary

Mental illnesses can be the scariest disease a person could encounter; they are difficult to talk about and are, sometimes, completely overlooked. Over the past few years, I have had friends go through this and have personally encountered different mental illnesses as well, for example: many of my friends and people I love have experienced of stages of depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. Watching some of my closest friends go through such rough patches and seeing them not take help from people, and struggling with acute mental insecurities myself as well, have made me frustrated as to why so many people have to go through this every day. I am curious and interested in the ways that we can cure these problems, along with the

When talking about mental illnesses, do people get uncomfortable and try to change the subject? This is because many people in the United States do not understand, support, and know what mental illnesses are and how to care for people with a mental illness like depression or bipolar disease. Mental illness is in the dark, it is not spoken or well known about (Broderick, John T., and Lisa K. Hinson-Hatz). Some people have had a negative attitude towards mental illnesses and those diagnosed with them for a long time. Over the years, doctors have discovered additional facts about mental illnesses than what was previously believed, but there is still a stigma surrounding it. The better understanding people have, the deeper support for those diagnosed

Since the earlier time periods, mental illnesses were viewed as being “religious punishment or demonic possession”. Mental illness was seen to be a religious or personal problem in Egyptian, Indian, Greek, and Roman societies. “In the ancient world cultures, a well-known belief was that mental illness was ‘the result of supernatural phenomena’” (History Cooperative). To be mentally ill was uncommon, and with lack of knowledge of the mental effects it played, treatments were not well thought out. “Although ancient Persians also believed that the illnesses were caused by demons, they practiced precautionary measures such as personal hygiene and ‘purity of the mind and body’ in order to ‘prevent and protect one from diseases’” (History Cooperative). Drastic operations were held in the name of prevention and with means of treating this ‘disease’. From asylums, electro-shock therapy, skull drills, pills, exorcisms, isolation and lobotomies, many of these drastic procedures were put in place to

On Wednesday, October 7th, 2015, I attended a panel discussion on mental health issues. The goal of this presentation was to bring forward the voices of those who have lived with and are still living with mental illness and discuss the best ways to fight stigma associated with mental illnesses. The members of the panel educated the audience on stigma, discussed how to fight stigma, and also shared how to provide support for those with a mental illness.

Despite being featured in the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for a multitude of mental health disorders and manifesting in several others (Moeller et al, 2001), the definition of impulsivity itself lacks clarity. Confusion derives from dispute about the measures of impulsivity and definition, however there are specific traits which are associated with impulsivity in humans. These traits encompass impetuous decisions, risk-taking (Eysenck, 1978) and crucial to this essay; impulsivity. Components of impulsivity include delay discounting (a preference for a smaller immediate reward), response inhibition (failure to inhibit responses) and, more recently, lapses in attention (de Wit, 2008). In relation to executive functioning, impulsivity plays a key role as it relates to self-control, which is regulates importance/drive to certain stimuli (Volkow et al., 2008). As an element of impulsivity, self-control failure is associated with addiction, defined in the DSM-IV (in alcoholism) as drinking more alcohol than intended, inability to reduce intake and social relationship dysfunction. In addicted individuals, the control is minimized compared to healthy controls. Exploration of the question of impulsivity being a cause or consequence is necessary, with promising development in treatment resting on the answer.

Mental illness is defined as “collectively all diagnosable mental disorders” or “health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013).

The term mental disorder means psycological and behavioral syndromes that deviate signicantly from those typical of human beings enjoying good mental health. All that mumbo jumbo means that a person with a mental disorder was a few cards short of a full deck. This is probably not the persons fault that they are like this they were just born this way. These people are not all a like. They are not even in exact classes because all of the classes have not been seperated yet. In most cases a normal person that has no disorders is afraid of these type of people. This is because they do not want to turn out the way these people are. A common example of a mental disorder is down syndrome.

A growing literature demonstrates that early diagnosis of psychiatric disorders between children can reduce the risks of adverse psychosocial outcomes, in adulthood. The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between adjustable risk factors and psychiatric disorders, between children and adolescents, in a developing country with life style transition.