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Mental illness: Families, survivors cope with a lifelong disease
By MATTHEW HUISMAN
A common misconception about mental illnesses is that they are somehow different from other diseases. Mental illnesses affect one of the most important organs in the human body: the brain. Just like heart disease affects the heart and diabetes the pancreas, mental illness is not only a disease, but a treatable one.
In the coming weeks The Observer newspapers will do a three-part series about mental illness covering topics like the stigma that comes with the disease, treatment options and a survivor’s ongoing road to recovery.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 6 percent of the population in the United States has a serious mental disorder. Included within the category of mental illnesses are anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, bipolar disease, borderline personality disorder, depression, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post traumatic stress syndrome, schizophrenia and social phobias.
Medication alone is typically not a solution. People with mental illnesses oftentimes seek out group therapy to help them understand that they are not alone in their daily struggles. Even with medication and psychotherapy, people can still have episodes. The disease ultimately controls the lives of the people it inhabits.
The disease can strike at any time in a person’s life. It can be onset from birth or surface later in life. Parents of children with some mental disorders often have trouble identifying the specific disease, which can lead to difficultly learning in school and making friends.
Mental illness can also be onset later in life, often triggered by a traumatic event in one’s life. The impacts can be disastrous and can create a domino effect, sending the person on a downward spiral. Somebody could have a prominent career one day and end up broke and homeless the next.
Furthermore, the abuse of drugs and alcohol to try and ease suffering can only lead to more problems like addiction. These are some of the issues and topics that we’ll tackle in the next three issues.
In the coming weeks The Observer newspapers will do a three-part series about mental illness covering topics like the stigma that comes with the disease, treatment options and a survivor’s ongoing road to recovery.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 6 percent of the population in the United States has a serious mental disorder. Included within the category of mental illnesses are anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, bipolar disease, borderline personality disorder, depression, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post traumatic stress syndrome, schizophrenia and social phobias.
Medication alone is typically not a solution. People with mental illnesses oftentimes seek out group therapy to help them understand that they are not alone in their daily struggles. Even with medication and psychotherapy, people can still have episodes. The disease ultimately controls the lives of the people it inhabits.
The disease can strike at any time in a person’s life. It can be onset from birth or surface later in life. Parents of children with some mental disorders often have trouble identifying the specific disease, which can lead to difficultly learning in school and making friends.
Mental illness can also be onset later in life, often triggered by a traumatic event in one’s life. The impacts can be disastrous and can create a domino effect, sending the person on a downward spiral. Somebody could have a prominent career one day and end up broke and homeless the next.
Furthermore, the abuse of drugs and alcohol to try and ease suffering can only lead to more problems like addiction. These are some of the issues and topics that we’ll tackle in the next three issues.
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