These definitions are words that have been used to describe people with mental health over the year and words that are still used today. These negative words which I have also have used in the past when thinking of people with mental health; I also had these thoughts when my brother said these things to me.
Mental health is a complex phenomenon that consists of a range of diagnoses, treatments and outcomes. Recovery from such experiences has historically meant to completely remove all symptoms of illness, but is now currently thought of as regaining a sense of control over and development of a new meaning and purpose in one’s life, rather than feeling defined by the illness. Each individual understands it in their own personal way, likened to a journey towards self-determination, choice, and empowerment.
A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person 's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning.1 Mental illnesses can be grouped into two broad categories, each representing a different aspect of a mental disorder. Axis I diagnoses are inclusive of those disorders which are most familiar and widely recognized, and typically encompass the most acute symptoms that need immediate treatment (i.e. adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders, cognitive disorders, eating disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia, etc).2 Axis II disorders are those defined by their permanence and nebulousness. They are generally life-long problems that arise in childhood and are much less responsive to treatment than Axis I disorders are. Axis II diagnoses are comprised of personality disorders and intellectual disabilities (i.e. antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, etc).3
Psychotic disorders can be described as a mental health disability in which a person experiences changes in thinking, perception, mood and behaviour which can severely disrupt their lives. Some of the main psychotic disorders include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychotic depression, schizo affective disorder and drug induced pychosis. Some common symptoms when a psychotic disorder is developing include depression, anxiety, irritability, suspiciousness, blunted or flat or inappropriate emotion, changes in appetite, changes in thinking, difficulties in concentration or attention, a sense of alteration to ones self or the outside world, odd ideas and unusual perceptual experiences. Some behavioural symptoms can include sleep disturbance, social isolation or withdrawal and/or reduced ability to carry out work and social roles.
Mental illness refers to many disorders that affect your mood, thinking, and behaviour. There are many different types of mental illnesses with different severities such as depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and addictive behaviour. Having a mental illness is so common in Canada, 1 in 5 people encounter some degree of it. Many of your friends and family may be suffering from some form of mental illness without you knowing it. This can be because it is at a very early and week stage, they are on their medication, or they are doing a good job at hiding it from you. People often hide their illness to prevent being judged and treated differently from their loved ones. This can be a problem as their illness could worsen and cause long term irreversible damages. Some of our society doesn’t respect people with mental illnesses as before, people with this illness were called crazy and they were told they had a disease. This may be a reason people still don’t feel comfortable telling people close to them.
Many people see the mentally ill as crazed individuals that commit peculiar crimes that they don’t necessarily get punished for. That is not a completely inaccurate statement. Research has been going on for decades to try to see if there is in fact a link between the mentally impaired and violence. First physicians attempted to put together an archetype that would help them guess if the mentally ill patient in question was at a high risk to be violent. But that is all they were; merely guesses as to how likely a person was to commit violent acts. The first real studies done to correlate the mentally ill and their threshold of violence was done the 1970s. These tests showed that clinicians are twice as likely to be wrong as they are right when
4. Genetic depression is depression caused by an individual’s inherited genes that are passed down by another victim of depression
My stereotypes and perceptions of the mentally ill have changed over the years. Some of these were because I lacked knowledge mental health and the other was just being ignorant. Public stigma gave me many preconceptions of the mentally ill. Media was probably the worst with its nightly news reporting, on reasons why a person had disruptive or violent behaviors. Reporter’s always tried to link the mental state of the person to the crime or incident. It was always interesting how everyone in my family sat around the TV making comments. I was young at the at time and listened to how they called confirmed people with a history of mental illness “nuts” or they most have “lost their marbles”. Growing up I remember if anyone did not act normal or
Former mental patients must reach out and find a proper support system to help them remain on their medication and sane. A study preformed in Tokyo by Kido, Yoshifumi; Kawakami, Norito; Miyamoto, Yuki; Chiba, Rie; Tsuchiya, Masao (2013) showed that former patients that reside in more tight knit, willing-to-help communities will find the transition less threatening because of their expectations of receiving help from their neighbors. Yoshifumi, Norito, Yuki, Rie, and Masao (2013) also reported, “People living in a community with high trust might generalize their feelings of trust to people with mental illness and perceive them as trustworthy as a part of the community.” There were no findings that related volunteer work, fairness, or confidence
Labels such as “homosexual” and “schizophrenic” can be hurtful when they fail to distinguish among health, illness, and immorality.
“When a person is labeled mad or insane, their thoughts, speech and every action are plagued with that label”(Mind Freedom UK). Research was conducted in a locked Norwegian mental hospital to determine what happens when dangerous situations occur in a ward. As the researchers were conducting their information they acquired that many staff members frequently use stereotypes when referring to patients. When they spoke of “dangerous” patients they referred to the individual as “them” or “it”. By doing this it dehumanizes the patient. “‘The doctors don’t think about the individual person’ said a middle ages women in the Norwegian facility. A young man stated ‘they always force you into a diagnosis’”(Terkelsen, Torill Borch Inger Beate Larsen) An experiment was conducted by Freidl, M and, T. Lang and M. Scherer to see how the general public perceives mental illness patients . Questions such as, “most people believe that a person who has been in a mental hospital is less intelligent than the average person”, “most people think less of a person who has been in a mental hospital” and, “once a person knows someone was in a mental hospital they will take his/ her opinion less
The chapter 1 reading this week mentioned how insurance coverage impacts the treatment process of different mental illnesses. Currently, the health insurance industry holds a lot of power over the type and duration of treatment provided/covered for patients. The chapter also mentioned that there is currently a 2011 federal parity law that requires equal coverage for mental and medical health issues. While these systems do have challenges and difficulties that need to be addressed in terms of how mental health issues are treated, there is current legislation (the American Health Care Act) being sent to the US Senate that could affect these issues even more negatively. According to the American Psychological Association (2017), “Medicaid currently provides roughly a quarter of all financing for mental health services.
Another category that was added was ¨other words¨. The responses collect was ¨different reality¨ and ¨dangerous and unstable¨. With this negative outlook on this illness or lack of knowledge, this can truly affect the person who has the illness negatively. If such an outlook persists, one may not feel like they are able to confide in friends or family about their symptoms, and in turn, not get the professional help that they
The World Health Organisation (2014) defines Mental Health “as a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community” (para. 1). Mental health refers to an individual’s psychological, emotional and social wellbeing; it has the ability affect people’s perceptions, thought, feelings, actions and capacity to respond to change, stresses and challenges within their lives (Headspace, 2013, para. 1). It influences how individuals perceive themselves, their resilience, life decisions and the people around them. Maintaining a stable, healthy and positive mental state is crucial for all individuals throughout their lives in order to avoid developing mental health problems and illnesses. The following essay will address Mental Health and why it is considered one of the challenges facing PDHPE teachers in the 21st Century, it has a major aim of exploring how the subject of PDHPE can address the challenges of the wider community and how classroom teachers can address mental health within the schooling environment.
The United States has their own view on mental illness when compared to other developed countries. The developed countries that were analyzed with the United States were England and France. Our research question was “Does the United States view mental illness differently than other developed countries?” The research that I conducted was over the policies and ideologies of mental illness in the United States.
Mental health is the overall psychological and the emotional well-being of any individual. A person who is mentally healthy is someone that can adjust to the emotional and behavioral requirements of stress and conflicts that are associated in daily living. According to Elizabeth Ahmann there is over “400,000 children are in foster care in the United States, and more than 100,000 of them are waiting to be adopted” (Ahmann p. 1). Foster home placement is associated with stress and disruptions in attachment relationships. These losses undermine a child’s attempt to form a secure attachment with a primary caregiver. John Bowlby formed the Attachment Theory. It is a process made up of interactions between a child and his or her primary