THESIS:
When some people think of a monster they think of a terrifying or dangerous creature. When some people think of mental disabilities they don’t think of them as monsters. (what I perceive as a monster, and how I see a monster. People portray people with mental illnesses as monsters, not their disability as a monster).
BODY PARAGRAPH 1:
Centuries ago, many psychiatrists and neurologists thought mental illnesses were associated with demonic or supernatural occurrences in a human body. In 1525, people thought that a mental illness could be cured by trephination – also known as trepanning or burr holing – a surgical procedure where a hole is drilled into a skull to remove a piece of the bone. Studies have shown that trephination is helpful in some mental illness cases, but could also be harmful to the patients. Although this technique relieves pressure in the brain, which was found helpful with some mental disorders, there was a high risk the surgical tools in this procedure could puncture the brain and result in complete loss of motion to the patient’s body. According to Miguel A. Faria Jr., publisher of Violence, Mental Illness, and the Brain, in 1936, Dr. Walter Freeman, an American psychiatrist, and James W. Watts, a neurosurgeon, performed the first frontal lobotomy in the US. Later in 1946, James and Freeman published the first edition of their monograph Psychosurgery. In their monograph, James and Freeman reported on their trephination surgical results of 200 patients. They found that 63% of their patient’s disorders were improved; while 23% had no improvement: and 14% were worsened due to the surgery. This surgical technique was used in many places around the world, but there is no link between continents and how it was first influenced into medical practices. Although mental illnesses have been around since our ancestors, our knowledge of them has evolved in many different ways over time. Most mental disorders today are not seen to be caused by a supernatural presence but a chemical imbalance in the neurotransmitters of the brain. Some disorders can even be caused by heredity (genetics), psychological trauma such as emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, as well as environmental stressors such as death, divorce, or substance abuse (MedicineNet). Some of these illnesses are being helped by medications, psychotherapy, group therapy, and day treatment or partial hospitalization, as well as a lobotomy as a last resort.
BODY PARAGRAPH 2:(analysis)
People who are affected by mental illnesses go through something no one could imagine. Each illness has its own effects on the human brain and functions in its own ways. Mental illnesses have a way of taking over a human body just like a virus. Being a person with depression, I see how it takes over my life and makes it its own. My depression has made me struggle through many things and it never asked me how I wanted to feel or act. It just did what it wanted without permission. Although my experience with depression is different from others, in a way it is the same. People with depression all go through symptoms such as a lack of motivation and happiness in our lives. People who struggle with any sort of mental illness are
How does a mental illness affect one’s actions and emotions?
-They affect the thinking, feeling, and mood of a person. Some illnesses can affect someone’s ability to function in their day to day life. Even though some people might have the same illness, they go through different experiences with the mental illness.
How do mental illnesses affect relationships?
-Mental illnesses can make or break a relationship. A disorder can cause stress, sadness, fear, and confusion for all the people in the relationship. There can be a lot of confusion when dealing with a mental illness, and that confusion can lead to frustration and anger, which can lead to many problems in a relationship. Whether this relationship is between friends, family members, or lovers, dealing with regular relationship problems and mental illnesses can be hard. Jamie, a student at Colorado Mesa University, said “There were days that I actually thought my life would end because I didn’t know how I could help myself through my rough times and I didn’t know how to get help from my friends and family. I didn’t want to annoy them with my problems because I knew they had their own to worry about”
How does a mental illness affect someone’s daily life?
-Someone with a mental illness can have many symptoms, but one of the main symptoms are mood swings. One day can be a good day for them and the next can be a bad one. With a mental illness you never know how the next minute of your life will go. You can be doing fine but then you aren’t. When it comes to mental illnesses and emotions, there is no gray, it is black or white. A fellow classmate of mine, who I will refer to as Cody, said “from my personal experience with depression, some of my days were so good that I didn’t feel like anything bad could happen, but then something would trigger my depression and it felt like I wouldn’t make it through the day alive. I actually thought I would die because I didn’t think I could live through the hurt and the pain that my emotions and PTSD brought me”.
What is societies views on mental illnesses?
In a Huffington post written by Caitlin Klevorick, she goes to say that today’s society spends more time trying to ignore mental illnesses than to understand them. Considering that more than 25% of American adults and 46% of American teenagers experience a mental health disorder once in a given year, that is hard to believe. Unfortunately, Klevorick is correct. For a problem that is nationwide, we do a good job of trying to minimize the circumstances, and that’s not easy to do given how many people mental illness affects.