Ill See
The Stigma of Mental Illness
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Mental health is a sensitive issue. As a society we need to understand and recognize just how often mental illness affects people. There are many ways to diagnose physical health problems. The most common being, if it hurts, or doesn’t work normally, get it looked at. But how can a person with mental illness be expected to know when their brain ‘hurts’ or if it is not functioning normally? There are no guidelines to show them if they see, think, hear or imagine things differently. There are not many standards to compare mental health. How can one be expected to figure out if they fall in the category of normal? Once diagnosed treatments are available and are usually quite effective; however, it is very difficult to discover if you need a diagnosis in the first place.
Mental illnesses are comparable to Diabetes. Diabetes is a disease where your body does not produce enough insulin to break down sugars. Your brain can have similar problems in not being able to produce certain hormones, or chemicals for it to function normally. There are many forms of mental illness that affect the brain; each one carrying its own unique sets of symptoms which if recognized, can be diagnosed and treated properly.
Mental illness is generally characterized by disturbances in a person’s thoughts, emotions or behaviour. The more common types or mental illness include:
Anxiety disorders
Mood disorders
Psychotic disorders
Eating disorders
Impulse control and addiction disorders
Personality disorders
Some other types of mental illness which are less common include:
Adjustment disorders
Dissociative disorders
Factitious disorders
Sexual and gender disorders
Psychosomatic disorders
Tic disorders
Mental illnesses affect 26% of the population. Diabetes affects about 16%. It is surprising that stigma’s are still attached to a disease that affects over a quarter of the population. People who are diagnosed might feel like they are ‘abnormal’ or ‘different’ adding to the fear that they are alone with their illness and/or others will not understand. Would you be comfortable revealing a diagnosis to the family, a boss, some friends? Since the disease affects more than 77 million people in the United States alone we should be able to talk about and accept the fact that a mental illnesses are not something to be ashamed of, not something to hide from but something to acknowledge and find cures and treatments for. We have so many programs to walk for the cure, run for diabetes, donate to kidney disease, but no programs to help those with mental illness. So often the mentally ill are blamed for their disease. This stigma may hinder a person from seeking or accepting treatments. This attitude is dangerous, as no one would ever blame you for getting cancer, or developing diabetes. We need to recognize that mental illnesses are common and are not something to hide.
Information on symptoms should be more readily available since many people with mental illness live without knowing or even understanding the fact that they might be in need of treatment. It usually takes something extremely out of the ordinary or violent to begin the diagnosis of potential mental illnesses. One woman noticed her husband sometimes repeated certain small tasks. He would turn the lights on and off multiple times in a row, or open and close the bathroom door more than once. She did not link the repeating of tasks with a possible mental illness. In her logical brain, she rationalized that he simply could not make up his mind weather he wanted the light on or off, the door open or closed. However, due to lack of education, both did not realize that his need to open and close doors multiple times was the cause of a mental illness. Once diagnosed, the man realized that his brain could not disassociate the facts of superstitions, created by the imbalance of his chemical makeup, with real events. He believed that if he closed the door at the wrong time the superstition in his head would come true. Luckily, his symptoms were mild compared to many. Some actually see images that are not real. Some hear things, often negative things, in their heads. Some, like the man, connected real life events with images in their minds. They believe they can prevent bad things from happening to themselves, or to others by keeping with a certain sequence or pattern of numbers during all daily activities. Mental illness can be draining, exhausting and frustrating. If you are focused on preventing bad things from happening, you cannot focus on living a full and happy life. To people like that, everything must be controlled to secure a desired result. If the sequence or pattern is prevented, or hindered, the person must often go back to the start of the sequence to once again attempt to secure that desired, or often undesired, result. Some develop the illness over time, and some have characteristics of them at birth. Often these illnesses can be treated like diabetes; with proper dosage of the hormone or chemical (usually serotonin) that is missing from the body.
Neurotransmitters, or chemical substances are the main cause of mental illnesses. These chemicals include dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine and acetylcholine which allow brain cells to communicate with each other. If you are lacking or have too much of any of these chemicals, your brain will not be able to function normally and symptoms of mental illness will be present. The levels of chemicals are directly responsible for the severity of the illness. With the help of a psychologist, you can start treatments to help balance your chemical configuration. Just like diabetes, a single dose of the proper chemicals can help an affected brain normalize the intake and production of hormones.
No physical body is perfect. Some people have physical issues that are readily seen or observed, like acne, asthma, allergies etc. Some have more hidden issues like diabetes, high blood pressure, or hemophilia. Your body simply cannot produce the necessary balance to create keep you ‘normal’. If you feel you are suffering from mental illness, or if you know someone who might have one, talk with them. Help them understand a basis for normality. The problem is that a mental illness can take on many different symptoms. Talk with them about the ability to make decisions, or any patterns they may notice in seemingly random things. Try to see if they hear or see things out of the ordinary. Understand them if they seem to need help with certain tasks. Help them see that what they may be experiencing isn’t traditionally ‘normal’, and support them if they do decide to get treatment. If there are children involved, note that mental illness can be hereditary and when caught at a young age, a person can grow up to lead a healthy, active life uninhibited from their mental illness. The stigma behind mental illness must be overcome. You would never look down on someone if they told you they had diabetes. Mental illness is no different, and twice as common. Let’s change the way we think by changing the way they think.
About the Author
I write to understand the world.
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