The Mentally ill

1. My Argument

1.1. People should get to know what their mental disorders or illnesses truly are, so they can receive proper treatment.

1.2. Mistreated or untreated patients can become worse and eventually harm themselves or others.

1.3. Journalism and the media should paint a picture that shows the true ways of curing a person of their mental illnesses and detail that being uncured can be serious and dangerous to the general public.

2. More research

2.1. Some mental illnesses can not be cure due to multiple factors which have caused the illnesses

2.1.1. About 44 million Americans 18 and older have mental illnesses, 20% of them are children. Treatments today consist of medication, psychotherapy, Group therapy, day treatment or partial hospital treatment, specific therapies, such as cognitive-behavior therapy and behavior modification, water therapy, massage and biofeedbacart therapy, art therapy, music therapy or play therapy, hypnotherapy, electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), and Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS)

2.1.2. Under-treated mental people in society usually wind up committing crimes or incarcerated. This is not to say that most prisoners are mentally ill, but it is common for someone that does not take psychiatric medication with a mental condition to do criminal acts. In a court of law a gulty person is able to plea insane and if proof is presented or they are proven insane then they will receive treatment and are free due to criminal insanity. The insanity plea is used in 1% of criminal cases. 35% of which the plea is used is for murder charges. In the past some have plead insane to stay away from jail, but their efforts failed because they were not at all insane. When someone is diagnosed for having a mental illness they are likely to not be able to understand the situation and not control their actions or forget them. They also may not know what their actions are in some cases and cause harm to them or others. There have been cases of mental illnesses becoming worse with treatment which leads to people ending there lives by heightened stages of their known serious mental illness. this why diagnosis should be sought for as soon as any sign becomes present.

2.1.2.1. Lethal violence is unusual among persons with severe and chronic mental illness, but when it happens, the victim is likely to be an immediate family member.

2.2. Almost half of the mentally ill suffer from anosognosia, a brain impairment that prevents them from realizing they need treatment. They don't believe they're ill, so they refuse medication that could help them.

2.3. The media distorts the view of mental illnesses making people afraid to react to those with the problems. A few ways that ideas are changed and stereotypes are set are: people with mental illness are violent, they’re unpredictable, they don’t get better, depression is caused by a “chemical imbalance, teens with mental illness are just going through a phase, all mental health professionals are the same, and they’re evil, foolish or wonderful

3. Research

3.1. Prerequisite: Treating public illness has long been a process of trial and error guided by public attitudes and medical theory.

3.2. Theory of how early mental illnesses started: The Colonial American society referred to those suffering from mental illnesses as ‘lunatics” which interestingly enough was derived from the root word lunar meaning, “moon.” Through astrological reasoning it was believed that insanity was caused by a full moon at the time of a baby’s birth or a baby sleeping under the light of a full moon. Colonists declared these lunatics possessed by the devil, and usually they were removed from society and locked away.

3.2.1. The start of treatment for the mentally ill: When mental illnesses first started the patients fitted into one of two Categories: mania or melancholy. The procedures were cathartic and different ways that the patient could be medically treated was shock treatment to the brain, placing them in ice water until they were unconscious, inducing vomiting, and the bleeding treatment. The bleeding treatment was not effective due to the lost of excess blood from the patients. Even though many patience died from the bleeding treatment they still proceeded the process as a mean of draining "bad blood" to cure the patients. At the time people in society were fine with the ways of treatment because the mentally ill was no longer in public sight. Later a treatment called Moral Management came in which they replaced shackles chains, and cement walls with beds,nice pictures and decorations. This cahnge was made to make the patience feel more at home.

3.3. How the public got involved: Eventually the Civil war led to soldiers being traumatized from war and becoming the major number of patients in mental asylums. This led to the public opinion of treatment due to there care for the men that served in the war at the time. Not to soon after the government adopted the ideas of an architect named Kirkbride and funded a mental asylum known as Athens Asylum for the Insane in January 1874. The asylum was built to fit the public eye, but push attention away from the harsh treatment inside. The institution adopted church, dancing, picnics, and boating. many other asylums started to open and include such things as well. Later, the reputation of the institution having recreational activities for the patients in the asylums lead to the public becoming more comfortable about patients care.

3.4. The rise and fall of institutions: Many institutions became overcrowded because undesired people such as hobos, junkies, and the homeless in started to stay there. This led to patience sleeping on shacks that had three people to one shack instead of each patient having one room. Old procedures were reintroduced and the lobotomy was introduced. From the lobotomy came the trans- orbital lobotomy, which was faster to do. At first it was a success. The testing of 31 patients had a result of 25 being able to go back home. Eventually the procedure lead to complications and deaths which was the downfall of mentall institutions in the public perspective. Over time the use and need for mental institutions declined due to medications and bills that were passed such as medicare and medicaid.