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The World Health Organization Describes Mental Disorder

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The World Health Organization describes mental disorder as “a combination of abnormal thoughts, perceptions, emotions, behaviour, and relationships with others” (Mental Disorder). Some mental disorders include depression, schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, dementia, anxiety disorder, etc. Mental Illness is very important today as about “1 in 5 adults in the U.S.–43.8 million, or 18.5%–experience mental illness in a given year” and about “1 in 12 adults in the U.S.–10 million, or 4.2%–experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities” (NAMI). It is essential that people are able to treat their illness. A 2010 studies showed that about 3.9 million U.S. adults have severe mental illness that are left untreated. Out of the 2.6 million people who have schizophrenia, 51% of them are untreated. Untreated, people are shown to be an imminent danger to themselves and to others (Fast Facts). Self-harm is the act of hurting yourself on purpose. People harm themselves as a way to cope with their emotions. It is associated with depression, eating disorders, anxiety, personality disorder, or posttraumatic distress disorder–also known as PTSD. “Injuring yourself stimulates the body’s endorphins or pain-killing hormones, thus raising their mood…[someone] might cause himself pain in order to feel something ‘real’ to replace emotional numbness” or is an act of releasing their emotions when they are used

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