Mentally Ill Community Essay

Words: 2102
Pages: 9

According to New York Daily, about 42 million American adults suffer from mental illnesses, enduring conditions such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Mental health is a condition concerning one’s psychological and emotional well-being. People who are diagnosed with an mental health conditions have major shifts in mood, thinking and/or behavior. Those who agree to seek treatment for a mental illness have to through a consenting process. This is where he/she talks to a counselor that gives them the terms and conditions with being labeled mentally ill. This diagnoses allows them to have access to medication, housing, counseling and financial stability. However, the label “mentally ill” tends to carry a negative connotation due to the …show more content…
This discrimination can put many burdens on an individual as well as their families. The mentally ill are being discriminated against due to the lack of representation in the media, thus leading to increasing unemployment, and suicide rate among this community. Before going into detail on how the mentally ill community is misrepresented and the negative effects that comes with it, we have to look at the root of problem. This is done my asking important questions the first being, “Where did the negative connotations about the mentally ill community come from?” The simply answer is that these stigmas that surround the mentally ill stems back to from time immemorial. Humans have this ideal of what a “normal” person should act and anything outside this norm is known as odd, strange, and unacceptable. Thus we have tried to fix people into becoming what society believe is normal. This strategy took place towards those with mental illness. The history in treating mental illness has a shocking past. One of the earliest forms of treatment is trephination, which involved removing a small part of the skull. This was believe to relieve