Perceptions of Mental Illness

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MENTAL ILLNESS
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Perceptions of Mental Illness
Introduction
Mental illness is a health condition that affects how a person thinks or how they do their
things. The mental disorders may develop due to several reasons including but not limited to
genes, intake of drugs, situations in life and brain damage in case one encounters an accident
(L, 2018). A person could be depressed, anxious, addicted to something or even end up
developing poor eating habits. The signs of illness lead to stress and abnormal functioning of
a person. It makes one’s life difficult since one is not comfortable while interacting with
people. The infected could have signs and symptoms such as insomnia, illusion, extreme
change of moods, stress and drug abuse. One can also develop poor health including frequent
headaches, a change in eating patterns, hurting oneself and other people, and the inability to
cope with people (Sepulveda, 2012).
There are different types of mental illness. One is an anxiety disorder which is a type of
disease where a person has uncontrolled fears and phobia which leads to sweating and having
fast heartbeats (Chikaodiri, 2010). There is also a mood disorder which is an illness where
one experiences extreme mood shifts; they could be too happy or angry at times. Another
type of mental illness is a psychotic disorder where an individual’s thinking is affected. The
decisions and reasoning of an individual are poor. The eating disorder leads to changes in the
habits of eating a person where one can eat less or overeat. All mental illnesses are brain-
related problems that are difficult to control (Vigo, Thornicroft, and Atun, 2016).
Principles and Perspectives in the provision of Mental Health
Some principles apply when taking care of patients of mental illness. The patients
should be assessed and treated voluntarily. They should be helped to decide whether to be
determined, treated and understand the recovery process. Their views and choices should be

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considered and taken care of (Sepulveda, 2012). The language used should be recognized by
the patient and the word used should be easy. Their rights should also be cared for and
respected. They should be provided with their basic, social and religious needs. These needs
should be provided based on their gender, age, type of mental illness and any other health
condition. The interests of children and the youth should be identified and promoted too. The
roles of those taking care of the patients should also be recognized and should get help when
the need arises (Vigo, Thornicroft, and Atun, 2016).
People have different points of view of mental health based where they come from,
their knowledge on mental illnesses and interaction with mentally ill persons. The
perspectives keep changing with time. Earlier, mental illness was related to evil spirits,
witchcraft, and supernatural forces (Vigo, Thornicroft, and Atun, 2016). Today people have
changed their understanding of
The cognitive-behavioral therapy developed which took care of anxiety disorder. People
did not consider some disorders as mental illnesses earlier. Those who are completely mad
were the only people found to have mental illnesses. Today, people have accepted mentally
ill people and are taking care of them (Alshowkan, 2017).. Also, different institutions have
been established to take care of people with mental illness, and medical centers have included
a department to take care of mentally ill persons. People have learned to accept their states
and are ready to seek help from medical personnel and psychologists (Sepulveda, 2012).
Different perspectives have had different effects on an individual. People fear
individuals with mental illness which makes them develop an attitude towards such people.
As a result, people living with mental illness develop a negative attitude towards people
(Alshowkan, 2017). They stop associating with people and want to be alone at all times. They
are also afraid of talking out their problems to other people. The self-esteem of the patient is
also lowered. They are no longer comfortable talking to people and hence lose their friends.

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On disclosing their health problem to their employers, they may lose their jobs. Overthinking
and stress further complicates one’s issue (Sepulveda, 2012).
The family members of the patient are also affected when one of them is mentally ill.
They are forced to tolerate the weird behavior of the person. They are hurt by the individual
and hence coping with such an individual becomes hard. Family members have a challenge
raising money to take care of a patient and interacting with them becomes wearisome; the
roles performed by the individuals are neglected (Giannakopoulos and Kolaitis, 2012). Those
taking care of the patients also face a challenge in their field. They are forced to put up with
the behavior of the mental illness patients and taking care of them is stressful, demanding and
takes much time(Barnes and Burlingame, 2016). They also suffer isolation since they rarely
take part in leisure activities and the belief related to mental illnesses keeps other people
away from them. Some people believe that those who take care of mentally ill persons also
suffer from mental illnesses.
The Contribution of Therapies in treating mental illness
Different institutions take care of mentally ill persons. This starts with the family a
mentally ill person (Sepulveda, 2012). At times family members are not able to solve the
problem, which could be through counseling or easing one’s burdens which include work
assigned to them and also changing the environment of the patient. If the problem persists,
the patient can seek help from social institutions, psychologists, visit social workers or seek
mental health help from an expert (Barnes and Burlingame, 2016). Rehabilitation centers
have been established to take care of patients of mental illnesses. Some of the people that
suffer mental illnesses are the productive members of society.
When mentally ill, they cannot work effectively, and some are forced to leave work.
Once they undergo treatment, they go back to their places of work and continue delivering
their services. An example is the transport services (Barnes and Burlingame, 2016).. Taking