What Is Mental Illness?
Mental illness seems to be an ever-increasing topic of discussion in recent years from not enough screening to poor treatment options and social stigmas associated with mental illness. However, the question still remains, what is mental illness? As the mayo clinic simply puts it, “Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior.” These illnesses include anxiety, autism, depressions, schizophrenia, and many more. Mental Illness is a large problem in the US and around the world. It is very widespread with about 25% of adults having some sort of mental illness each year (mic.com); yet many people with these conditions do not receive treatment …show more content…
One disease categorized as mental illness, depression, can have symptoms of immense sadness, changes in thoughts, mood, and even physical health (NAMI). This disease effects between 5 and 8% of adults in the US each year and can last for a full lifetime, swinging in and out of periods of remission and recurrence. Another mental illness is schizophrenia. This disease causes many problems with thought, emotions, and relating with others. This can have vast effects on a person’s family and friends and also puts the person at a higher risk of suicide (NAMI). Additionally, mental health can have large impacts on a person’s life, not directly caused by the disease. Patients with untreated mental illnesses can have serious risk of substance abuse, child abuse, financial problems, and other problems (mic.com). This shows how much of a problem mental illness truly is, and it stands to reason that this should be addressed. The reality of the situation, however, is that mental illness is left untreated and not thought about by many people and there is much room for …show more content…
Firstly, there needs to be more affordable treatment or insurance which actually covers the expenses with mental illness. Most insurance plans pay about half the cost of treatment for mental illness, and some cover even less than that (mic.com). The article on mic.com argues that this can and will likely be helped by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, because it requires insurance plans to cover mental health services. Legislation including this could be a large step forward, but it is only part of the financial solution. Care itself should be less expensive so that insurance companies are more willing to include mental health in their coverage plans. Money, however, is not the only problem. Many people simply do not know what mental illness really is or that it is even treatable. This needs to change. It seems that the answer should be education and simply having more light shown upon mental illness. With this, there could slowly become more and more people who know how to deal with mental illness, just as they would view a physical
Mental illness seems to be an ever-increasing topic of discussion in recent years from not enough screening to poor treatment options and social stigmas associated with mental illness. However, the question still remains, what is mental illness? As the mayo clinic simply puts it, “Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior.” These illnesses include anxiety, autism, depressions, schizophrenia, and many more. Mental Illness is a large problem in the US and around the world. It is very widespread with about 25% of adults having some sort of mental illness each year (mic.com); yet many people with these conditions do not receive treatment …show more content…
One disease categorized as mental illness, depression, can have symptoms of immense sadness, changes in thoughts, mood, and even physical health (NAMI). This disease effects between 5 and 8% of adults in the US each year and can last for a full lifetime, swinging in and out of periods of remission and recurrence. Another mental illness is schizophrenia. This disease causes many problems with thought, emotions, and relating with others. This can have vast effects on a person’s family and friends and also puts the person at a higher risk of suicide (NAMI). Additionally, mental health can have large impacts on a person’s life, not directly caused by the disease. Patients with untreated mental illnesses can have serious risk of substance abuse, child abuse, financial problems, and other problems (mic.com). This shows how much of a problem mental illness truly is, and it stands to reason that this should be addressed. The reality of the situation, however, is that mental illness is left untreated and not thought about by many people and there is much room for …show more content…
Firstly, there needs to be more affordable treatment or insurance which actually covers the expenses with mental illness. Most insurance plans pay about half the cost of treatment for mental illness, and some cover even less than that (mic.com). The article on mic.com argues that this can and will likely be helped by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, because it requires insurance plans to cover mental health services. Legislation including this could be a large step forward, but it is only part of the financial solution. Care itself should be less expensive so that insurance companies are more willing to include mental health in their coverage plans. Money, however, is not the only problem. Many people simply do not know what mental illness really is or that it is even treatable. This needs to change. It seems that the answer should be education and simply having more light shown upon mental illness. With this, there could slowly become more and more people who know how to deal with mental illness, just as they would view a physical