About 450 million people all over the world suffer from mental ill health. The subject of psychiatry has suffered at the hands of the society. The topic has an unpopular following, and this has triggered a ‘crisis’ amongst people seeking mental help. According to the Mental Health Foundation, patients with psychiatric disorders are often discriminated by the society, and this makes their situation even worse. There have been a heavy around the use of psychiatric drugs with many experts being divided whether the drugs are helpful of not.
On the other hand, psychotherapy has been received well by the society, with a majority of the seeking help from psychotherapists. Research conducted by the World Psychiatry Association shows that, while seeking mental help, people often prefer professionals as well as psychologists in cases of schizophrenia. Most patients choose to seek help from psychotherapist rather than being medicated. In the last twenty-five years, help from psychotherapists/psychiatrists and medication has increasingly been sought. The study done by WPA show that people highly recommend psychiatrist in treating mental health problems.
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Mental illness is common, and anybody can be affected either directly or indirectly. At some point in life, one out of four persons may experience a mental disorder. I believe that, with the right treatment and attitude, mental health problems are treatable or manageable. Psychiatrist associations should do more to sensitize the public about mental problems to remove the stigma on mental issues. Psychotherapy is probably the best method of dealing with mental health problems and should be highly recommended.
Cases of mental ill health should be identified as early as possible to enable full recovery or proper management. A lot should be done to these patients to improve their self-esteem. I believe that most patients suffer from stigmatization of the condition more than they suffer from the disorder itself.
The end goal of therapies and medications should be improving the social and economic lives of patients with mental disorders regarding relationships, finding work, being in decent houses and even social inclusion in the mainstream media.
References
Jorm, A. F. (2000). Mental health literacy: Public knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders. The British Journal of Psychiatry , 177 (5), 396-401.
Szasz, T. S. (1960). The myth of mental illness. American psychologist , 15 (2), 113.
Wang, P. S., Lane, M., Olfson, M., Pincus, H. A., Wells, K. B., & Kessler, R. C. (2005). Twelve-month use of mental health services in the United States: results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of general psychiatry , 62 (6), 629-640.
