Lack Of Mental Health Literacy

The CDC reported only 20% of US adults went to a mental health provider in the past year. The other 80% were too ashamed and embarrassed to be associated with getting help. Society has shaped an image of the perfect person, and people with mental illnesses don’t believe that they fit that mold, because of this, they aren’t willing to seek help and instead turn to dangerous coping methods. Some of these coping methods include, smoking, drinking, drug use, binge eating, cutting, and possible suicide. These methods can cause chronic disease and premature death. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, those living with serious mental illness die an average of 25 years earlier than the general public, primarily due to treatable conditions. Due to the stigma of mental illness, people are treated wrongfully and are discriminated against, causing them to not get proper care. This discrimination causes people to have unequal access to housing, healthcare, employment, education, and community support, and can lead to unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. With all of these unfair and unjust barriers, it’s not hard to figure out why people wait so long to get diagnosed.

There is a major stigma around mental health in our society, this often leads people with mental illness to believe that it is their problem and that if they tell someone else they will get ridiculed rather than supported. However mental health is a societal problem and should be treated as such. Mental illness is the leading cause of death among teenagers in Canada, but people tend to ignore it rather than face the issue. Because facing the issue would mean acknowledging the

Many citizens do not get the help they need because they are afraid of what will happen after telling someone their feelings. Why is that? People with mental illnesses should be okay with telling someone, while not being scared about what they might think of them after getting the help. That is why citizens should get the help they need. Which then when they do not get the help they need it can lead to even worse circumstances. According to a doctor with a PhD, David Susman. The eight reasons people do not get help when they have a mental illness is, one, fear and shame. Two, limited awareness; three, lack of insight; four, feelings of inadequacy; five, distrust; six, hopefulness; seven, unavailability; lastly, practical barriers. Although that most likely did not make any sense to the reader, citizens with or without a mental illness should address the problem so people with mental illness do not feel like they are alone. If the depression does not get help thoughts of suicide become a natural occurrence, the depression can become worse, likewise other medical issues can arise. Such as pains/aches can happen all over the person with a mental illness, the brain chemistry of a person with a mental disorder changes which can lead to strokes or even a heart attack. The well being of those who have a mental health issue that do not get help, remains appalling, alarming, furthermore the people with mental health issues have perpetual

Caputo and Rouner’s study found that many people are uneducated about mental illness and they get their information from the media (2011, p. 595 ). Citing National Mental Health Association, Caputo and Rouner (2011), noted that 58% of people learn about mental illness from newspapers, 51% from television news, 34% from news magazines, and 70% from television programs (p. 596). There is so much negativity attached to mental illness that many people are scared to seek help because of public perception (Caputo & Rouner, 2011, p.

Mental illness is not getting the proper attention it needs. The United States should provide more funding to the mentally ill, for research, and medical purposes. Over fifteen million people are diagnosed with a mental illness every year. Many of them have difficulties to afford the treatment they need. Some do not even know that they have a mental illness because they never had a reason or even the finances to get checked. A mental illness can be detected at a young age. One with a mental disorder can suffer from depression and suicide, by receiving support from family and friends can help prevent this. By providing test at public schools could help detect an illness at a young age and give them the proper treatment needed to overcome their illness. Many who have a mental illness are unemployed, and have financial issues. By not receiving the proper treatment can result in harm to themselves or even others. The government is not giving the proper amount of funds for research and treatment. Some take advantage of the system and are the cause of the amount being so low. Mental illness is not getting the appropriate funding it needs to provide proper care.

Much of society is still highly uninformed on the topic of psychiatric disabilities, and for that reason some individuals suffer unduly because they do not recognize what they are experiencing. Again, this falls back to a lack of education. Earlier diagnosis and treatment would greatly improve treatment

Over forty million Americans suffer from a mental health condition; and, unfortunately, fifty six percent do not receive any treatment at all. “Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion and behavior”(Psychiatry.org). People live with their conditions even though their quality of life and personal relationships may be negatively affected. When one lives in a state of denial about having a mental illness, they are cheating themselves out of living life to their fullest potential and will achieve true freedom only when they face the illness head on and seek recovery.

Psychotherapy: Comparing the Psychodynamic and Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches Up to one in four adults in America suffer from some kind of mental illness, but as many as 80 percent of those suffering will not seek any form of treatment. According to David Susman PhD, a clinical psychologist and mental health advocate, in his blog post “8 Reasons Why People Don’t Get Treatment for Mental Illness” this is likely due to many factors such as social stigmatization of those with mental illness, widespread lack of awareness surrounding what is unhealthy, and misunderstanding or distrust of the functionality of potential treatments. While there are undoubtedly many other factors that contribute to an individual choosing not to seek help, all three of these factors can be

More and more celebrities have been stepping out and telling their story to encourage others to get the help they need. Each year organizations are formed with one purpose in mind; to gain awareness on mental illness in order to break the stigma. But is that enough? With the media exuding this stigma like a parasite slowly affecting its prey.With the news constantly exaggerating these stories beyond their true happenings. With movies using false notions and writing mentally ill off as extreme violence, unbearable depressives, exaggerated perfectionists, or insane narcissists with no in between. It is not enough. No matter how much information and knowledge reaches the population it is immediately crushed by the media of this generation that benefits and profits from these false depictions. This very stigma that is seeping from the media is mentally poisoning those who are actually mentally weak to the degree which they are afraid to get help due to fear of not wanting anyone to know of their condition and being rejected from society. But not getting help overtime can build up hostile feelings which will manifest itself in another light, and often as we have seen in recent news, that light is not very

There have been various methods in which the health care system has attempted to address the issues of mental health literacy in young adults. A method developed by Wright, McGorry, Harris, Jorm, & Pennell (2006) in Australia included utilizing multimedia, web pages, and a telephone information line to provide knowledge to young adults in a way that is more accessible to them. They found that by using these methods, the mental health literacy of young adults increased across a variety of areas. As described in a paper by Jorm (2012), a community campaign was

Not only are some of these extremely difficult to treat but some are also very unnoticed until it is severe and can be detected. It can also be difficult to get help to the person that suffers because one can be in denial about their illness, they can also refuse to get any help or they are simply not capable of understanding that what they experience is a mental health issue.

Awareness. Many people are unaware of the symptoms of mental illness and therefore are not able to spot them in themselves or others. Unfortunately, there is a problem when it comes to educating people on mental health. People don’t want to talk about mental health problems. They are afraid of mental illness and therefore avoid the topic. There is also a stigma in society that those with mental illness are in control of their disabilities so they are told to “change their thinking” rather than to seek medical help. This stigma and ignorance of mental illness symptoms often means that people struggling with mental health problems do not get help until they are at a point of crisis.

Although about 450 million people in the world currently are suffering from a mental illness, many untreated, the topic still remains taboo in modern society (Mental Health). For years, people with mental illnesses have been shut away or institutionalized, and despite cultural progression in many areas, mental illnesses are still shamed and rarely brought to light outside of the psychiatric community. The many different forms in which mental illness can occur are incredibly prevalent in the world today, and there is a substantial debate about the way that they should be handled. Some people are of the opinion that mental illness is merely a variance in perception and that it either can be fixed through therapy or should not be treated at

When somebody is sick with a physical ailment, people don’t brush it off. When there are scans, blood work, etc. to prove there is a problem, people take the illness very seriously. Yet, when someone is diagnosed with a mental illness, it is rarely taken seriously or considered. I

Imagine a world where a third of the human population suffered from the same type of illness. Imagine a world where the government does little to help those who suffer from this terrible illness. Imagine a world where nobody acknowledged the pain and suffering that comes along with this illness. This is, unfortunately, the world we live in today. The illness is not one that others notice, but it can have terrible consequences to those who suffer from it. The type of illness are the ones that plague people mentally.