paper on mental illness

Hinduism describes the body in an interesting way, an old adage says that the body is a chariot, the mind the driver, the horses the senses; the reins are the organs and the passenger the soul. The mind as the driver, the mind is capable of fathomless activities, and it basically controls who we are and what we do. The mind houses memories and controls our thoughts, it allows us to feel and experience emotions, it is the center of our being and it governs us.

Some people recognize the power of the mind and try to take advantage of others, by using the intellect for evil and unorthodox purposes, like manipulation and trickery. However our capacity to avoid these evils all lies in the strength of the mind, which builds our will power. The mind is what allows us to live normal lives because it develops defenses against tragedies and allows us to function. There are times however when the mind’s intense powers are disrupted and we develop mental disorders that affect our capability to reason and live our lives.

Psychological disorders are not a novel concept and have plagued mankind throughout history; they have been mostly believed to be possession by demonic spirits and were treated very brutally and with low tolerance. Psychological disorders are very serious in nature like any physical disease because they interfere with a person’s, ability to reason, their personality and their ability to experience and portray emotions and cope with everyday life and function in general.

In society today, when a person’s ability to function mentally is warped, they are said to suffer from psychological disorders. Conversely this was not the case in times of yore because most psychological disorders were treated as demonic possessions and the belief arose that the victims of these possessions were being punished for their misdeeds which led the victims having to endure horrifying rituals and rites as holy men, or some form of witch doctor tried to rid the person of the evil spirit.

The low tolerance of psychological disorders arose from the fact that most people did not understand them and chose to believe superstition because they were so fanatical about their religion that they did not allow a scientific justification to enter their mind. This led to the supernatural or demonological model of psychological disorders (Bernstein 441).

On the other hand just as man had been intelligent enough to divulge the secrets of the world and physics, some doctors were dedicated to uncovering the secrets of the mind, layer by layer. These pioneers in the field of psychological science embarked on the challenging goal of understanding the mind and its connection to the brain and body. These great men studied the behaviors that were seen as evil and with their research they were able to derive theories that allowed us to peek into the minds labyrinth of mysteries and develop an understanding of its power and the embrace that it has on us.

From their research the medical, psychological, socio-structural and diathesis-stress model of psychological disorders were created (Bernstein 441-444). These models replaced the demonological model in most of the western world and signaled relief to the torment that those mentally troubled had faced before. However some religions held on to the demonological model and the East still practice their mystical methods of ridding the mind of spirits, while in Africa witch doctors still perform strange and sometimes horrifying rituals to annihilate spirits.

A very complex process is involved in diagnosing a psychological disorder. In 1952 the American Psychiatric association published the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Bernstein 444). This manual officially known as the North American Diagnostic Classification System presented psychologists with the necessary information to study different approaches such as psychodynamic, cognitive- behavioral and phenomenological, in order to classify and treat mental disorders (Kaikobad).

The mind rules our behavior, personality and the way we handle situations in general. Our intellect builds defense mechanisms to help us cope with stress and situations that we deem impossible to handle. Sometimes though we are unable to cope with the tragedies and problems that life hurls at us and we develop mood disorders.

Mood disorders affect our ability to interact with people and enjoy life. Unfortunately many people suffer from these kinds of mental disorders. A very devastating mood disorder is depression, it is a disorder caused when a person is unable to cope with a stressor and they sink into mental hole so deep that they are unable to express emotion and perform daily tasks. People often refer to that despairing blackness of depression that causes self-loathing and a dragging towards suicide. Depression can last up to a few months and it is very grave in nature because the pathway to recovery from this disorder is not always smooth and it is termed the second most chronic illness in the world (Trouble in mind: Depression).

Dr. Kaikobad says that most people experience suicidal thoughts when their depression appears to lessen. These thoughts are very irrational and occur because the pathway to recovery is very tricky and some people see death as an answer to their problems, suicide a simulated deviant answer to their problems, created by a mind incapable of using logic.

Depression may be masked in individuals who are young or old. In most young people depression is often mistaken for a phase in becoming mature and in the old it is cloaked by age and other dementias. Symptoms of depression include a general feeling of sadness, a person has not been their self lately, they feel very alone, have a decreased libido; they do not look forward to anything and they feel useless, according to Dr. Keefe. Hydrotherapy and electroshock therapy were two drastic and dangerous means of treating depression.

However researchers have developed some less barbarous ways to treat this condition some of which include, barbiturates MADI’s, and SSRI’s (an example of which is Prozac). Research has also showed that St. John’s Wort can alleviate mild forms of depression (Trouble in mind: Depression).

The mind of a child is a very impressionable object and it can be shaped and fashioned to match that of a parent. This is why many mental disorders are hereditary or caused by early childhood trauma. Family dynamics plays an immense role in the state of mental health that an individual experiences. According to Barry in her book Mental Health and Mental Illness, studies of all types have found that birth order strongly influences a the way in which a person communicates in a family (111). Barry also stated that family rules and boundaries also play a prominent part in behavior and personality development.

Freud stated that the personality consisted of the id, ego and super ego. The id operates on a pleasure principle and the ego on a morality principle, at birth a child’s personality is driven by the id however as a child grows older the super ego develops more and the child begins to make judgments of right and wrong. Most of what a child will perceive as right or wrong will stem from the modeling they associate with their siblings or the behaviors that are punished by the parents. However most parents while realizing their duty to mould and shape the child into a personality acceptable to society, fail at their task and instead through the use of horrendous abuse, or devastating apathy, destroy the child’s mind.

Pundit Hardeo stated that children are the windows to their home and they will copy the behavior of their parents. He also a child can be perceived as a plant; during the first five years of his life a father should fertilize his personality with love, from the age of six to fifteen discipline him so that he does not go bend and lack in values and from the age of sixteen treat him as a friend.

Apathy on the part of a parent may be the most important reason for antisocial personality disorder. If someone asks a child about their role model the child may respond that their parents are their role models. This is the extent of the effect that parents can have on their children, children may watch their parents and model their behavior or adapt the vices and mindset of their parents. Take for example parents who are racist, even though we live in a country that proclaims liberty for all we are still plagued by numerous hate crimes. Now where is the most logical place to believe that the children are getting their myopic mindset? When a parent fails in their duty to correct a child and show them that their actions are not acceptable, the child sees this as a reinforcer and the behavior increases according to Thorndike’s law of cause and effect. Dr. Kaikobad affirms that the parents of these children show traits of the disorder and it is usually marked in childhood by cruelty to animals.

In his book Bad Boys, Bad Men, Black confirms that the behaviors that bloom into full-fledged anti social personality begin before the age of fifteen (81). Black also affirms that it is normal to break the rules occasionally as many of us push the boundaries of social expectations but eventually we realize that the rules and laws are there to help us. However some people never learn and from childhood on they rebel against every type of regulation and despite all sanctions they remain in the rut of bad behavior and this resistance to authority dominates their lives.

The DSM IV requires that conduct disorder be a requirement in diagnosing antisocial personality disorder (81). Anti social personality show an aversion to authority and most children commit petty stealing to portray this aversion but as they grow older, these petty crimes give birth to more severe crimes, which land them in jail. Black states that anti social boys may join gangs, because gangs provided a means of defying authority and the law. In a case presented in his book Black affirmed that the root of an anti social boy’s problem was his parents whom made him feel rejected, overlooked in favor of his siblings. The boy Doug when placed back in the house with his parents tried to commit suicide, which led to doctors to reinforce their earlier belief that he wanted to get away from his parents (80).

Extreme childhood trauma had been shown to be a cause of dissociative personality disorder. Dissociative personality disorder is a phenomenal condition in which there appears to be distinct personalities or people living in the same body, and some personalities may be of a different sex than the host body. These very different personalities are born when a person suffers extreme trauma and they take over whenever a person cannot cope with the world. The personalities are so distinct that you may actually think that you are talking to a different person when speaking to one.

The book Sybil portrays the true story of a woman who had sixteen different personalities existing within her. Her doctor discovered, after extensive psychoanalysis that Sybil’s mother, a schizophrenic had put her through demoralizing torment since she was a baby. Sybil developed the selves as a way of escaping the torments of the world whenever stressors arouse that she could not deal with. Now this may seem like a terrific way to escape the tragedies of life but things are not always what they seem. The real Sybil was a depleted personality, while the other personalities protected her from life’s miseries they also stole from her emotions. Dissociative identity disorder takes years to right, and it is done so through hypnosis and integration in which Freud’s psychoanalysis is used (Schreiber).

Dissociative fugue is another disturbing dissociative disorder. This disorder lasts from a period of a few hours to a few months in which a person suffers extreme amnesia and travels to a place far away from home and maybe gets a new job and in extreme cases a new family (Kaikobad). It can be brought on by extreme stress or a trauma.

These dissociative disorders are very traumatic to an individual and their family because can you imagine losing time and not knowing what you did, or having to endure the long and trying process of integration in order to become one again. Picture the scenario of the person with the dissociative fugue who is happily married and living comfortably on e minute and the next they don’t know who they are and so they decide to build a new home and family, only to wake up one day and wonder who was the person next to them. This would be very distressing for the person and the members of both their new and old family.

Many people refer to psychological disorders as insanity, however this is not a term found in the DSM IV. Insanity is a legal term but not a psychiatric diagnosis. Dissociative disorders are often used as a facade in criminal cases as men and women try to build a pretense of multiple personalities to assume responsibility for the crimes that they themselves while in their own personality but a very psychotic state of mind committed.

This was so in the case of a man who had conjured up a split personality “Stephen” in order to escape the punishment for his crimes, which included murder and rape. There are many rules in diagnosing multiple personality and a major one states that a person does not remember what he did as another personality, this is a major factor in dissociative personality being a very dangerous problem.

When a person unties their bondage to reality, this is a very heartrending case. However this may be necessary in the case of people suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. This disorder includes vivid recollections, flashbacks and reliving a traumatic incident. Patients suffer from insomnia, psychic numbness, agitation caused by overwhelming assault on the mind or body. The early Greeks documented this disorder and during the civil war the terms soldiers heart and irritable heart were born. Victims mostly include veterans of wars who had to let go of their morals and kill or be killed, although people who suffered sexual assault, a natural disaster or witnessed a violent crime are prone to this disorder.

People sometimes have to let go of their conscious minds or principles as in the case of soldiers killing one another during the trauma and let their will for survival take over. However as we know nothing comes without a price and these soldiers may suffer greatly afterward as they relive their horrifying experiences and feel devastating grief or guilt and feel inert desires to harm someone as they relive or have nightmares about their experience. Homer said, “…It is not possible to fight beyond your strength even if you strive…” Veterans had to abandon their morality and fight for survival and when they are placed in a society where there is no real threat or danger they may not realize it because of their vivid recollections. In a case of this disorder a seventy one year old man drove his car into a ditch because he thought that an airplane above was going to bomb him. This is very distressing for the individual and their family because they may be a threat to themselves and their family because they themselves feel threatened. In a case of this disorder a seventy one year old man drove his car into a ditch because he thought that an airplane above was going to bomb him.

Victims of post- traumatic stress disorder are generally unable to talk to anyone about the way that they are feeling and they may turn to wine or alcohol as a means of escape. They experience difficulty in carrying out everyday tasks as the fear and helplessness can come on at any time and their families feel helpless as well because they do not know how to help them. Eighty percent of victims suffer from other major types of psychiatric illness like panic disorders (Trouble in mind: post traumatic stress disorder).

Schizophrenia is another disorder that causes a person to abandon reality. Health center.com affirms that schizophrenia is a mental illness that causes a person to lose touch with reality. Research states an excess of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain or seratonin may play a part in the disease.

Contrary to popular belief schizophrenia does not mean that a person has split personalities, in fact they have only one personality but they may suffer from hallucinations and delusions amongst other symptoms. Schizophrenics usually come from a schizophrenogenic household and have a low tolerance for stress. A genetic diathesis is a factor in the disease and a dysfunctional family in which emotionally everything has the same weight and there is no individual sense of identity for family members. There is also double bind communication which means that two diametrically opposed messages are given at the same time, this causes confusion in a child and they develop personality traits that are maladaptive and longstanding.

About one percent of the world develops schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a severe condition because it occurs when there is a global breakdown of all levels of functioning (Kaikobad). Individuals with the disease can harm themselves because their association is loose and they may develop a state termed waxy mobility where they can stay I a position for hours at a time, which can cause severe damage to their nerves and muscles. Schizophrenia is also treated by the integration approach as well as medication and psychotherapy, which strongly advise that a person not be allowed back into their dysfunctional family.

Psychological disorders are not rare and are disturbing as any physical disease. These disorders interfere with a person’s ability to function emotionally, mentally and to enjoy life. Although they are recognized today most people still do not understand them and there is a general fear and ignorance of people with these disorders. When our minds are not our own anymore and it is ruled by narcissistic and Id principles then people should not fear what damage we can to them but what try to understand the horror that psychological disorders present to its victims and sanction the cause for treatment and understanding. It is not an easy task to be incapable of the basic mental functions that God had granted us so we should try to identify with those that are denied the privileges of normal life due to their mental incapacities. We have revolutionized our treatments towards some of the disorders that I have talked about hopefully we will be able to the same to our attitude to these disorders in the future.