Month: February 2015

Mental disorders do not mean that someone is damaged goods or a throw away person, but they can have seriously damaging effects on a person’s life if they do not receive the help they need. Mental disorders can be overcome with work and commitment, or they can overcome a person if they are not tended to. The most important thing a person struggling with a mental disorder can do for themselves is receive the psychological treatment they need.

There are several different methods of receiving treatment for a mental disorder. Intensive counseling with a therapist who specializes in the particular mental disorder is the most highly recommended method of receiving treatment. If the disorder is occurring in tandem with addiction, residential rehabilitation is the best option. This condition is called a co-occurring disorder and requires even more expert treatment than simply a mental disorder on its own. A diagnosis for this condition should be made carefully and through more than one mental health opinion.

Time in a mental health treatment center will include a number of exercises, readings and counseling sessions that will guide the individual toward good mental health. These courses will begin to expose the underlying causes of the mental disorder and shed light on how to cope with and eradicate them. While psychological treatment is typically the most impacting form of treatment, it is very important that the individual treat their entire person, meaning physical health, relationships, life purpose, enjoyable recreation and spirituality all need to be nurtured as well.

People with mental disorders need to organize their diet and chemical intake around their disorder as a person’s chemical makeup plays a huge part in their mental health. The individual needs a strong, loving support system as one of its essential components. It is also very important that individuals with mental disorders discover a strong sense of life purpose as it is one of the essential components of mental health. Enjoyable recreation creates endorphins which generate happiness and good mental health, and determining what form of spirituality you follow is a mental health necessity.

Mental disorders have been misunderstood for much of history, and are still grossly misunderstood within some societal sects. In North America, a great deal of progress has been made in our understanding of what mental disorders are and how they need to be approached, but there is still a great deal of ignorance surrounding them. Stigmatization and persecution of mental disorder is still prominent within some demographics, and it is very important that awareness of and defense for mental disorders continues to be discussed.

When it is culturally acceptable to perpetuate and enforce stigmas about mental disorders, it does a great deal of harm to members of the society. Any persons that a society deems as “throw-away,” “damaged goods” or “broken” becomes the victim of a stigma, which damages the way the person views themselves. People who are struggling with mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety or addiction, are already mentally taxed more than the average person, and burdening them with judgment, shaming and stereotyping bars them from making mental progress.

Cultural awareness of mental disorders calls for a reversal of harmful stigmas and ignorant opinions. This is accomplished through current information sharing, both verbal and written, on mental disorders. Advocates for mental disorder awareness are vocal on the hardships, challenges and natural limitations that mental disorders entail in order to enlighten groups of people who have been previously misinformed. Some audiences are receptive and some are resistant, but the most important thing is that the word is being spread.

Mental disorders are not a defect, a character flaw or a reason to pass judgment on someone. They are complex mental problems that are both psychological and biological in nature, and they require a great deal of patience and understanding, not criticism and ignorance. It is time that our culture came to the defense of those struggling with mental disorders and offered them sympathy and protection instead of persecution.

Mental disorders are one of the most misunderstood conditions in existence. People who have mental disorders are some of the most mistreated people in any society. The mistreatment of people with mental disorders and mental illness demonstrates humanity’s failing to practice tolerance. However, it is not too late to change society’s attitude toward mental illness. If we hold one another accountable for our behavior, thought patterns and language, we can reverse the trend of discrimination toward those with mental disorders.

First, we need to stop considering mental disorders a defect. They do not make a person defective. They require a person to overcome more challenges than the average person, and for that, they should be commended. Some of the most brilliant minds and indisputable talents have come in a package that includes mental disorders. Living with them often open up mental barriers to understand sides of humanity that most people live their lives without ever detecting. To treat people with mental disorders like throw away people is to do away with many great minds. When someone with a mental disorder is properly encouraged and supported, they are often capable of incredible achievements.

Mental disorders require empathy, patience and understanding. They often take the form of a person with abundant mental abilities in one area and mental deficiencies in another area. This means that if the individual receives proper support through their dark times, they can emerge into their strengths and contribute exponentially to the marketplace of ideas. If intolerance and judgment are put aside and acceptance and understanding take their place, a person with a mental disorder can be someone who changes the world for the better.

We are realizing that mental disorders are much more common than we originally thought they were through studies and the ever broadening access to information that we have. However, despite this awareness we are gaining, there is still a cultural tendency for us to stigmatize mental disorders rather than empathize with them. The reason for this is most likely due to our natural human intolerance. It is easier to blame someone for their shortcomings than it is to be understanding and accepting of them. We are in dire need to come together in support of people with mental disorders so that they can have a greater chance at overcoming them.

It is very typical for people to pass judgment on those with mental disorders. They are impatient with the symptoms of mental disorders so they write them off as character flaws and things the individual should merely know better than to do. This is very counterproductive to remedying the problem of mental disorders. This is a form of shaming people who are mentally ill and creating a stigma around them that makes it much harder for them to believe in their own self worth. Mental disorders are real afflictions and the appropriate response to them is compassion, not judgment.

Stereotyping of people with mental disorders is also an unacceptable way of treating people who are already more heavily burdened than others. When people stereotype individuals who have mental disorders, they reduce them to less than what they are. In psychology, when someone interprets another person to be much less complex than what they actually are, it is called “straw-man theory.” Using this thinking over another person shows a lack of critical thinking on the person’s behalf who is making the assessment, not on the one being assessed.

The appropriate way to approach mental disorders is on an individual basis, allowing for all of the complexities and intricacies that make a person what they are. Mental disorders are a psychological illness and cannot be cured  overnight. They need intensive care over a long period of time to eradicate.