Illness In Mental Illness

Mental illnesses have a high prevalence amongst the United States population. Each year, tens of millions of individuals suffer and are affected by mental illnesses (National Institute of Mental Health, 1). These illnesses range from anxiety disorder, eating disorders, major depression, personality disorder, and many more. Yet, with the existing knowledge, mental providers and professionals, and the DSM-5, mental illness remains a growing mystery to the public. Literature has played a significant role in how mental illnesses are defined, their characteristics, and the portrayal of those who are mentally ill to the public eye. From memoirs on mental illness such as Susanna Kaysen 's Girl, Interrupted to Daphne 's Scholinksi 's The Last Time I

Throughout the nation and our world people are suffering from this disease. Depression effects people of both genders, all ages, and any background. The history of mental illness, specifically depression were extremely helpful in today’s treatment and diagnosis. We know that all individuals are different and because of this, we can assume that each case of mental illness, more specifically depression, is unique in its own way as well. One treatment that is very effective for one person may not be equally as effective in a similar case simply because of the differences in patients. History, types of depression, symptoms, and treatments are all equally important in finding ways to help one who is suffering from depression.

One of the many professional regulatory boards and bureaus existing within the Department of Consumer Affairs is the Board of Registered Nursing (BRN). Its main responsibility lies in licensing and regulating California’s registered nurses and these responsibilities come from the Nursing Practice Act. This act is composed of statures which give BRN the authority to manage a Diversion Program for registered nurses and other functions.

Mental illness has been around since the days of recorded history. People such as Aristotle, Thomas Overbury, and Jean de la Bruyere have studied the personality disorders. However, through history, people with personality disorders have been shunned and feared because of who they are.

Mood disorders are among the most prevalent forms of mental illness. Severe forms of depression affect 2%–5% of the U.S. population, and up to 20% of the population suffers from milder forms of the illness. Depression is almost twice more common in females than males.( (Nestler et al., 2002).

In the autobiography “A Child Called It” the author, Dave Pelzer, tells us about the abuse he suffers as a child. Child abuse is often defined as an action or failure to act when a parent or caregiver causes emotional or physical harm, death or injury to a child. Abuse can be physical, emotional, sexual or neglect. In his book, Dave describes for us the three waves of abuse he suffered, physical, emotional and neglect.

While efforts have been made to improve the mental health care system, none have fulfilled their intended purpose; to come to a viable solution, one must look at the problems in the mental health system politically, economically, and psychologically.

A mental illness is defined as a medical condition that affects a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Mental illnesses are present in both the Shakesperian play, Hamlet, as well as the Ken Kesey novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Over the course of the stories the main characters deal with depression and paranoia respectively.

The term “Mental Illness” can have a wide variety of what illness a person actually has, a mental illness can be depression, schizophrenia, PTSD, etc. Mental illness is a wide range of conditions that will affect one’s ability to think, their behavior, and their mood, yet there is no cure for one’s mental illness. With the help of hospitals, the right therapy, and of course, medicine mental illness can surely be treated. In society today, people view mental illness as having something wrong with someone, that they are psychotic and should be locked in a mental facility for the rest of their lives. We as humans view this due to the fact of everything we see on television and hear around our surroundings. The media has programmed our minds to believe untrue “facts” of what we believe is someone who is mentally ill. When in reality, the mentally ill people cannot help that they are the way they are because it is a silent disease that they struggle with every day. Due to their struggle and resentment of wanting to believe they are ill, they won’t ask for help when in reality they need it. They will keep quiet in fear of judgement, isolation, and discrimination, so every day they put on their mask and go out into the world pretending they are just fine.

Depression is not merely feeling sad, or moody, but it is a serious mental disorder that affects a lot of people and requires treatment. It is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States that is caused by a combination of environmental, genetic, biological, and psychological factors. Moreover, depression is a debilitating disorder that affects a person’s daily life, including work, school, sleep, and diet that is usually treated with psychotherapy, medications, or both.

Mental illness is a complicated and mysterious subject for most of the world. Depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and OCD are a few common mental illnesses. Nancy Xia takes you through her journey with severe depression in the book Leap. She reveals how depression effects her entire life including the lives of the people that love her the most. Throughout this short book, I felt Nancy Xia's pain and despair as well as her parent's stress, love, and sadness. She made me realize how criticizing and uneducated society can be about suicide and depression. Leap is not only about depression but it is also about hope, unconditional love, faith, and happiness. Once I started this book, I could not put it down until I finished it.

Throughout recent years, mental illness has become a belittled and “taboo” topic in a multitude of different societies. As a result, a majority of the world’s population isn’t exactly clear as to how one should approach those suffering from mental instability. Unlike physical illness, where an entire system of doctors and hospitals and medical research developed in order to cater to those who were physically ill, mental illnesses do not get nearly as much attention. Some would argue that a physical illness proves to be significantly more detrimental to one’s day to day life. However, observation of mentally ill individuals proves that mental illness can be as equally debilitating (you probably know someone in your life who has died from the

The articles The Myth of Mental Illness and Road Rage: Recognizing a Psychological Disorder addressed the issue of mental illness in two completely different contexts. Both authors agreed that societal context plays a large role in classifying what is “mental illness”. In The Myth of Mental Illness, Thomas S. Szasz was critical and sceptical of the definition of mental illness. Mental illness was defined as a deviation in behaviour from psychological, ethical or legal norms. He then proceeded to ask the reader, “Who defines the norms and hence the deviation?” He claimed that it is the society that decides what is considered as the norm, implying the significance of society in the classification of mental illness. In Road Rage: Recognizing a

Mental illness is an important topic that is rarely spoken or taught in today’s society. About half of people in the world have a mental health disorder, yet most people don’t know what it really means to have a serious health problem. There are numerous theories on why these disorders happen; additionally, some disorders in the world are still a mystery to the science community and also millions of people share these personal experiences through writing.

Mental illness is defined as health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion or behavior (or a combination of these) (American Psychiatric Association). There are different types of depression and they effect people differently also. With major depression working, sleeping, eating and spending time with friends and family becomes difficult to do because there is the constant feeling of hopelessness. Seeing that I have family and friends who suffer from depression, I wanted to learn more and see why people who are depressed think the way they do, what goes on inside their head to make them feel hopeless and if medication is the only way to help deal with depression even though for some people medicine doesn’t fully help them. What is the science behind depression and what makes a person’s brain chemistry without depression different from someone who suffer with depression? Overall, I just want to know more about depression and how I can as part of a society bring light to mental illness like depression so it’s not a topic that goes ignored. In the short story “The Yellow wallpaper” how does Gilman express what depression feels like for someone who suffers from it and with the backlash that it had back in 1892, what do people think now about mental illness? While researching about depression and keeping in mind how can I be helpful to my friends and family, what research/sources is there to help me learn more about