“I have been diagnosed with a long list of mental illness. I live with severe depression and tremendous anxiety, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and borderline personality disorder,” said one of the unfortunate mentally challenged human beings (NAMI, 2017). This sadly indicates how suffocating it is to undergo life with mental illnesses. Londerner Chloe Brotheridge has stated in her book, The Anxiety Solution: A Quieter Mind, a Calmer You, that having a mental illness is a suffocating feeling of dread that will affect the people physically as bad as emotionally. Presently, mental illness or mental disability has been wrecking people’s lives drastically – according to National Alliance on Mental Illness of the United States (NAMI), nearly 9.8 millions of adults in the United States are experiencing a serious mental illness in a given year and also 24.1% of youth aged 13-18 suffers from a severe mental disorder at some point in their life. It evidently concludes that mental illnesses could happen to anyone regardless of their age. This menacing disorder has affected so many lives out there as it could not be simply prevented or with remedies; it has directly or indirectly affected the sufferer, the family relationship, the society. This apparently also can be seen in the remarkable novel written by Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon. To clarify, mental illness like extremely low IQ has affected Charlie Gordon’s life, his family life, and the society around him.
First aspect to consider is on how mental illness affects the sufferers. Mental disabilities like Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Anxiety and Panic Disorders could give such immense effects in two perspectives: emotions and behaviour. According to the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), chronic mental illnesses can have enormous consequences on an individual’s emotional health; resulting in sudden changes in mood, erratic thinking, exaggerated sense of self-worth, and chronic anxiety. To enumerate, based on the research made by a psychiatrist in Lakeland, Florida, Dr. Harry Mills – if the patient is having a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), his or her body will continuously release stress hormones such as Cortisol which may destruct the functioning of brain’s neurons. This particular consequence will affect the portrayal of emotions by the sufferer. Apart from that, mental illness can affect the sufferers in terms of their behaviour. In this case, Dr. Caroline Carney, Chief Medical Officer of Magellan Healthcare states in Merck Manual (a healthcare website) that a sudden or major change in personality or behaviour of the patient will happen because the brain cannot be functioning properly. The people who are suffering from mental illnesses will act differently compared to ordinary people; they may show confusion, delusions, and also disorganized behaviour. The most typical behaviour that has been shown by the sufferers would be disorganized behaviour. In fact, it is proven by Professor John David Elsworth, who is a senior scientist in Psychiatry at the Yale University, claims that disorganized behaviour affect most people with mental illnesses; the people will have troubles in communicating with proper words, they move or react very slow, and they tend to repeat the same movements over time. This is very saddening to them because they cannot act like normal people. Hence, it can be seen clearly that mental illnesses can affect the sufferers in terms of their emotions and behaviour.
How mental illnesses affect the sufferers has definitely been portrayed in the novel, Flowers for Algernon through the protagonist named Charlie Gordon. He is a mentally disabled person, who is suffering from (P something – I forgot the name) with an IQ of 68 only. As per mentioned, most people with mental illnesses will be affected in the case of their emotions and behaviour. Charlie uncertain emotions can be seen clearly throughout the storyline as he could not feel different senses of emotions. For instance, when medical assistant named Burt Selden gives Charlie a raw shok test – Charlie fails to identify the image that he can see from a stack of white cards with black ink spilled on them (a Rorschach inkblot test) and instantly he says that he only sees black ink; which results in his overthinking process. In the novel, he keeps mentioning that he has “faled” the test and he thinks that Dr. Strauss and his colleagues will not make him a “genes”. This simply indicates that Charlie is undergoing unnecessary feeling because he is not actually failing the test, it is just him, who overthinks on everything that he does. Adding to the evidence, Charlie also shows irrelevant sense of fear when he keeps on telling that he feels scared; this can be seen when Burt asks him to sit on a chair for a test, but Charlie feels afraid because he thinks that the test is going to hurt him instead. On the other part of the novel, it is also clear that Charlie has also been affected in his behaviour – his “progris riport” is the absolute evidence that he has undergone disorganized thinking, speech, and behaviour. Throughout the novel, he writes his own style of progress reports with countless misspelled words and wrong pronunciation; “Prof Nemur was worryd about my eye-Q getting too high…” is one of Charlie’s sayings. He fails to write a correct sentence because of his impaired cognition. Other than that, Charlie’s disorganized behaviour can also be seen when his co-workers at Donner’s Bakery trip his foot as a joke, Charlie’s reaction is the compelling evidence because instead of getting mad at them; he gets up and makes loud yet silly laugh at the joke. This simply indicates that Charlie cannot differentiate between an act of jokes or an act of bullies which results in his disorganized behaviour. In short, his mental illness has affected him badly and erroneously which makes him feel uncertain emotions and display disorganized behaviour.
Looking out of the scientific perspectives, mental illnesses also can affect the society. Generally, the society can be generous and kind or they can be mean and evil. Hence, it is vital to clarify which effect does the society get – the good society will somehow get the downsides while the bad society will get the benefits. To clarify, when the people in a good society meet or know the sufferers of mental illnesses, they would love to help them such as offering them a place to stay, helping them to fight their anxiety, and even listening to the sufferer’s jokes and ideas. However, this would make them feel disappointed in the end and they would receive more burdens because the sufferers will not be able to reciprocate with them. Based on a research made by Mental Health of America (MHA), 37% of participants, who have joined the Center of Peer Support complained that they feel upset and disappointed because most of the sufferers of severe mental illnesses like Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder will never grasp the intentions of helping them. This simply indicates that the people in a good society will feel burdened and disappointed because the sufferers will ask for repetitive actions from them. On the other hand, the bad society will become more inhumane because they will use the sufferers for their own benefits. According to Dr. Allison Charten, a psychologist in the University of Toronto claims that the society has a stigma towards the mentally challenged people which makes them treat the people as an illness not as a person. Adding to the evidence, disabled people in the United Kingdom have been discriminated by the society and in an online survey of 1,500 adults, 85% of them agreed and witnessed the discrimination against disabled people (Metro UK, 2007). This clearly delineates that mental illnesses have been directing the good society to become more burden and the bad society to become more inhumane.
The impacts of mental illnesses on the society has also been depicted in the novel. Assuredly, there are two groups of people, who have been affected by Charlie’s disability. First and foremost, Professor Nemur is belonged to a group of people who are highly intellectual yet he is emotionless and does not really care about people. When he sees Charlie has the potential to become the subject of their experiment, he is so eager to start the experiment without considering the faulty consequences that Charlie will be affected. This indicates that he becomes more inhumane which is one of the impacts of mental illness on the society. To enumerate, Professor Nemur is never interested in Charlie’s emotional well-being, he only sees Charlie just like he sees Algernon – as a laboratory animal. Even though, he is trying to help Charlie by altering Charlie’s brain to boost his IQ; he still has his own agenda which he only wants to be known and to win the Noble Prize. When Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss are scheduled to announce their exploratory finding in a scientific convention in Chicago, Charlie realizes that the experiment that they have made on him contains flaws in which Professor Nemur and Dr. Strauss have miscalculated the amount of observation time, which is necessary to determine whether Algernon’s intelligence will be permanent or not and just continue to make Charlie as the next experimental subject. This clearly depicts that they simply takes Charlie as an object without really acknowledging the bad consequences to Charlie as long as they get what they want for such a long time; fame and success. Apart from that, in the good side of the society, Alice Kinian is the most compelling evidence; when Charlie’s intelligence deteriorates, Alice is so devastated because she cannot convey the feeling of love to Charlie anymore as Charlie has become silly again. For instance, Alice comes to Charlie for one last time – she wants to spend time with Charlie before he will be mentally challenged again. In addition, Alice has also been forced by Charlie to make a promise in which when she leaves Charlie, she will never come back to him. Lastly, Mr. Donner also gets the burden of having to keep the promise of him with Charlie’s uncle to give Charlie a job in his bakery because Charlie cannot guarantee a job at another workplace. All in all, it is clearly shown that mental illnesses can affect both groups of people differently; makes them feel burdened and become more inhumane.
Lastly, mental illness can also affect one’s family life. World Mental Health Day, showed that more than 80% of patients with mental illness agreed that their mental health conditions have had a detrimental effect on their family. Taking care of a family member that has mental disability could be a very stressful job and indeed require a lot of patience. Especially parents, who are willing to do anything for the sake of their children’s health and safety which are their priorities. Having a family with mental illness can be an extremely painful and traumatic time for all of the family members and have a huge impact on a family’s financial and emotional state. The focus here is on the unaffordable families or families with low incomes that had to take care of their mental illness family member. High cost of medication and expensive supportive accessory are highly recommended when taking care of a person with mental illness. Parents have to do a major sacrifice of their finance to maintain their mental illness children’s health. In emotional content, jealousy is the main issue that rises among siblings. The one’s who is the state of mental illness for sure will receive much more attention in taking care of him/her compared to the other siblings even if actually parents are in contrary on giving each of the family members and equal love and pleasure. Parents may sometimes direct time away from other children because a person with mental illness should be well taken care of. Apart from jealousy, this incident might cause an unwanted feeling towards the ill family member and possibly a family argument could also happen. For example, because of the extra attention given to the one’s with mental illness, one’s sibling might have a hatred feelings towards one way, or another. According to ourhealthyminds.com , family members might experience stigma, family lives that revolves around their sibling living with mental illness, personal shame. This could also cause a disbeliefs among own’s family member that made family members run away. They might feel guilty as well because they are healthy and just doing well. Adding on, they may also fear that they too might have or will develop mental illness. This clearly proven that one’s with mental illness could affect one’s family, emotionally and financially.
The affect of mental illness in one’s family is also shown in the novel of Flowers for Algernon. Certainly, it was represented by almost all of Charlie’s family member. The most obvious one is Charlie’s sister, Norma who hated him because of his mental disability when they were growing up. This hatred feeling that have grown in Norma towards Charlie what made them separated for a long time and caused one of them to run away from the family. This rage feelings towards his mental illness brother what made them grown apart and lost familiarity among each other. They did not even recognise each other when they reconnected with each other. Rose, Charlie’s mother was in denial for most of his early years as to Charlie having any sort of problem at all. She constantly scolded him for not living up to unrealistic expectations. This shows that this kind of situation also happens between a parent-child relationship, not only among siblings. Charlie was treated very terribly and tried to run away as far as possible from his family. He was never quite able to mend the rift in his family, but he took important steps towards getting some closure in the novel Flowers for Algernon. Financially, Charlie’s dad, Matt Gordon, was a barbershop supply salesman who hated his job, could not afford to pay for Charlie’s primary institution, a special school for people with disabilities. Matt wanted to send Charlie there for his own good, and where he should go. But because of his financial status were not that good. Nevertheless, Matt has always been willing to accept Charlie for who he was and had always been his loyal defender. Hence, clearly it is proven that mental illness can affect one’s family terribly, and also could affect in a long-term time.
All in all, as a conclusion, someone with mental illness do have a major affect on the patient himself, society and even affects on one’s family. It is very remarkable how much a person with mental disability can affects one’s lives. Charlie’s mental disability had affect many lives, but in the end, he made people change to become a better person. Even himself. “Family members reported they had become better and stronger people. Their experience growing up with a family member living with mental illnesses led them to develop greater empathy and compassion, more tolerance and understanding, healthier attitudes and priorities, and greater appreciation of life” – D.T. Marsh from Family Members with Mental Illness (2004). To conclude the conclusion, someone with mental illness should be treated as a person, not as an illness. Because after all, everyone have vulnerabilities as well as our own strength and our humanity is found in the sum of our parts. As said by Michael Groat, pHD in health and medications (stigma), people with mental disability should be treated based on your experience with them, snap judgements can be faulty and may deprive us of true understanding of others. National Centre on Workforce and Disabilities suggests that we shouldn't assume that people with mental disabilities also have cognitive disabilities, or are less intelligent than the general population.