Mental Illness In America Essay

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About 42.5 million Americans are affected with a mental illness. This affects their daily functioning and can often lead to unemployment, reliance on government assistance and even death. Many suffer from chronic depression and other mental illnesses like anxiety and schizophrenia. Their lives are often drastically changed from the moment they are suspected of having a mental illness. But hundreds of thousands of psychiatrist, doctors, nurses and volunteers are on hand to help guide patients through this process and they do the best they can under the strict guidelines set by the U.S. government. The immense cost of psychological care, the negative social stigma of having a mental illness and a person’s refusal to receive treatment often hinders …show more content…
Patients may not take medication and might dismiss therapist. Patients will often try and avoid taking medication. Families often remain unaware of this because of privacy laws so doctors are unable to talk to them about these issues. Those who do not take their medication can harm themselves and other people. For example, a man from Maine bludgeoned his elderly mother to death after refusing to take medication for his severe schizophrenia. He killed her after assuming that she was an al-Qaeda operative. And as a citizen of the United States, he had the right to refuse medication and treatment. Laws like this keeps doctors from treating those who are mentally ill.
The opposition will claim that the mentally ill are being inadequately cared for, however, with the limited resources offered to them, people are doing their best to help those with mental illness. Many organizations offer support, information and care for patients with mental illness. For example, NAMI, or the National Alliance on Mental Illness, educates children and parents about the effects of mental illness and how to cope with it. They offer a call line to encourage and support those with mental illness. Individual organizations like NAMI do their best to help people who suffer from mental

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