Download Mental Illness – An Overview

Mental Illness – An Overview
American Studies
Mental illness is any disease of the
mind or brain that affects a
person's:
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Thoughts
Emotions
Personality
Behavior
Symptoms
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Extreme moods, such as excessive sadness or
anxiety, or a decreased ability to think clearly or
remember well. Almost everyone experiences
mood swings or finds it difficult to think clearly
from time to time.
A mentally ill person, however, has severe
symptoms that damage the person's ability to
function effectively in everyday activities and
situations.
Forms
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Mental illness has many forms, and it
affects people in all countries and at all
economic levels. Although milder mental
illnesses sometimes pass without
treatment, severe cases of mental illness
require professional treatment.
Mental Health Professionals
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Mental health professionals have made important
advances in the treatment of mental illness since 1950.
Treatment methods used today usually help people
recover from their symptoms more quickly than in the
past.
The availability of effective treatment has helped to
reduce the fear, disgrace, and shame that has
surrounded mental illness for centuries.
Most people with mental illness can return to leading
normal, productive lives after obtaining appropriate
treatment.
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Mental health professionals sometimes refer to mental
illnesses as mental disorders or psychiatric illnesses.
The terms neurosis and psychosis are sometimes
used to describe the severity of various mental illnesses.
A neurosis is a mild disorder that causes distress but
does not interfere greatly with a person's everyday
activities.
A psychosis is a severe mental disorder that prevents
an individual from functioning in a normal manner.
Insanity is a legal rather than a medical term, which is
used to describe a mental illness so severe that the
person is considered not legally responsible for his or her
acts.
In everyday language, people may call a mental illness
that occurs suddenly and requires rapid treatment a
nervous breakdown, but mental health professionals do
not use this term.
Types of Mental Illnesses:
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The standard classification systems
describe more than 100 types of mental
disorders, which are divided into broad
categories.
Classifications Mental Illnesses:
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Delirium
Dementia
Schizophrenia
Mood Disorders (depression & mania)
Anxiety Disorders
Panic Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Dissociative disorders
Somatoform disorders
Personality disorders
Eating disorders
Substance use disorders
Mood Disorders - Depression
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These are also known as affective disorders, and mainly
involve disturbances in the person's mood.
The two chief mood disorders are major depression
(extreme sadness) and mania (extreme happiness and
over-activity).
People with bipolar disorder, also called manic depressive
illness, suffer from alternating periods of depression and
mania.
Mood disorders are usually episodic--that is, the person
experiences mood disturbances at relatively brief,
distinct periods during the course of the illness.
People with mood disorders typically return to normal
levels of functioning after treatment.
Depression
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Most people with depression feel sad,
hopeless, and worthless.
Many also suffer from insomnia and loss of
appetite and have trouble concentrating.
Some people with depression move and think
slowly, but others feel restive.
Some feel so hopeless and discouraged that
they consider or attempt suicide.
About 15 % of people who seek treatment for
depression commit suicide.
Causes of Mental Illness:
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Physical changes in the brain may cause
a number of severe mental disorders,
including delirium and dementia. Brain
damage can result from head injuries,
infections, or inherited defects. Diseases
that damage or destroy brain tissue
include encephalitis, meningitis, and brain
tumors. .
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Chemical imbalances in the brain may
also trigger mental illnesses, particularly
schizophrenia, mood disorders, and some
of the anxiety disorders
Genetic factors. Research has shown
that schizophrenia and mood disorders
sometimes run in families.
Social and psychological factors that
may increase the probability that a person
will have a mental illness include early life
experiences and various types of stress.
Treatment of Mental Illness
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Most people with mental illness require
specialized treatment from mental health
professionals, such as psychiatrists,
psychologists, psychiatric social workers, or
psychiatric nurses.
Somatic therapy usually involves the use of
medications.
Medication treatment. Since 1950, scientists
have developed a number of medications that
have proved extremely successful in the
treatment of certain mental disorders.
Psychotherapy is a form of treatment that
uses psychological methods.
Plath’s Treatment
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Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is used primarily for the treatment
of severe depression. Psychiatrists usually use it to treat hospitalized
patients who remain depressed and suicidal in spite of medication
treatment and psychotherapy. In most cases, ECT shortens the
period of depression, but the patient must often take medication for
some period of time after ECT treatment to reduce the risk of
relapse.
An ECT treatment consists of passing an electric current through the
patient's brain for a fraction of a second. Prior to treatment, the
patient is given anesthesia and a drug that prevents convulsions.
Typically, a patient receives such treatments two or three times a
week, with a total of 6 to 10 treatments. After treatment, the
patient experiences temporary amnesia and confusion. Mild
problems with memory may persist for several months. ECT has
aroused controversy due to concern about its side effects, but most
psychiatrists believe it is an effective form of treatment for severe
depression.
History
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Early attitudes. Prehistoric peoples
apparently believed mental illnesses were
caused by evil spirits that possessed the
body. They may also have believed that
drilling a hole into the person's skull would
release the evil spirits. Scientists have
found fossils of drilled skulls that date
back as far as 10,000 years.
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About 400 B.C., the Greek doctor
Hippocrates stated that mental disorders
resulted from an imbalance of four body
fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and
black bile.
For example, depression supposedly
resulted from an excess of black bile. The
ancient Greek name for this fluid, melan
chole, is the origin of the word
melancholy, which means sadness.
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During the Middle Ages, a belief in
witchcraft spread throughout Europe.
Many people with mental illness were
considered to be witches and were killed
by burning, hanging, or drowning.
Mentally ill people were also put in prisons
or in government welfare institutions
called poorhouses.
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During the 1500's, many European nations built special
institutions to separate the mentally ill from the rest of
society. One of the most famous of these institutions was
St. Mary of Bethlehem in London, which was widely
known as Bedlam. The inmates there suffered from
unsanitary conditions, beatings, and other harsh
treatment. Today, the word bedlam means uproar and
confusion.
Humane treatment of mentally ill people gained
importance in the late 1700's. During that period, a
French doctor named Philippe Pinel and William Tuke, a
British merchant, worked to improve the conditions of
mental institutions in their countries. Through their
efforts, many mental hospitals introduced treatment
programs that included fresh air and pleasant
surroundings.
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Medical approaches to mental illness were first practiced
in ancient Greece and Rome and again became standard
practice in the late 1800's in Europe. Emil Kraepelin, a
German psychiatrist, developed a system of diagnosing
and classifying mental disorders in 1883. He also
advanced the search for the causes of mental illnesses
through his study of mental disorders and changes in the
brain.
In the early 1900's, the Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund
Freud introduced the theory that forces in the
unconscious mind strongly influence an individual's
personality and behavior. Freud also suggested that
conflicts during early childhood affect the development
of the unconscious. These theories became the basis for
psychoanalysis and other forms of psychotherapy.
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Recent developments. During the 1950's, the
discovery of effective medication treatments led to a
reduction in the number of patients in hospitals and
state institutions built for the care of the mentally ill.
Many communities, however, lacked adequate services
and facilities to help mentally ill people readjust to living
independently.
Mental health professionals, patients, and family
members have formed organizations committed to
improving public understanding of mental illness. During
the 1980's and 1990's, many scientists began to study
the living brain with new techniques, including positron
emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI).
Images created with these technologies have shown that
many mental illnesses may involve problems in brain
development, structure, or function.
Quiz Chapter 19
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“We vote? What does that mean? Our modern fetish is universal suffrage!” P. 503
“The average American women has sixteen square feet of skin…women are not yet
spending even one-fifth of the amount necessary to improve their appearance.” Page
504
“The problem lay buried, unspoken for many years in the minds of America women.
It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered
in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled
with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped with her children, chauffeured Cub
Scouts and Brownies, lay beside he husband at night – she was afraid to ask herself
the silent question – ‘Is this all?’” Page 505
“But the times are changing, and from now on, more people will speak out and
demand from their so-called bosses that they be treated the way the bosses
themselves would like to be treated.” Page 507
“The law cannot do it for us. We must do it for ourselves. Women in this country
must become revolutionaries. We must refuse to accept the old, the traditional roles
and stereotypes…We must replace the old, negative thoughts about or femininity
with positive thoughts and positive action…” Page 511
“…I was sweeping the floor. Probably the floor did not really need to be swept;
probably I simply did not know what else to do with myself. But as I swept the floor
thought: “now I am a woman.’” Page 512