Mental Illnesses: Changing The Outlook

Improved Essays
White 1
Taylor White
Mrs. Wnek
English 11-3
25 April 2017
Mental Illnesses: Changing the Outlook Mental health is not only a social problem that cannot seem to be accepted nor understood, but it is an emotional problem for those who have mental health problems. Mental illnesses should not be treated the same as physical illnesses because they are caused by different factors, others need to be aware so they may have a better understanding of mental health, and statistics say that every 1 in 4 adults will develop a mental illness in just one given year. Without a doubt one of the many reasons that mental illnesses should not be treated like a physical illness or any other illness is because others need to be aware of mental health
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Mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety may often be learned due to the way some are raised in life. As stated by Michael Karson in the article We Shouldn’t Treat Mental Illness Like Physical Illness, “Personality disorders and most depressions and anxieties are learned.” (1) A quote such as this one is simply stating and informing one that behaviors are learned, which by saying they are learned is meaning that the mental illness may develop from childhood experiences or the way their family life was. Children will often see their parents’ behavior while having the anxiety attack or other mental …show more content…
The social stigma in America is basically “if I don’t have it, then I don’t need to learn about it”. Sounds selfish right? When an issue pertains to health and can potentially be dangerous to anyone, others should be aware because some mental health issues can be dangerous. For example, schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects a person’s ability to think, behave, and do things clearly. This mental disorder can be dangerous to others because the person that has the disorder cannot think clearly. Although the disorder may be dangerous, it shouldn’t be treated differently by society. If a person is treated differently just because they are different, that is what causes them to act unjustly.
Furthermore, others need to be aware so they can better understand mental illnesses. For example, in the article We Shouldn’t Treat Mental Illness Like Physical Illness; Michael Karson stated, “The analogy to physical illness misses the point that for many serious mental illnesses and personality disorders, the issue is that they don’t ‘get’ other people”. (2) Those that are
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