The term mental illness refers to a range of condition and disorders that affect your emotions, thinking, and behaviors. Mental illnesses are commonly seen worldwide and affect many people. Statistics say that “nearly one in five (19 percent) U.S. adults experience some form of mental illness”(Psychiatry.org). There are many theories as to what causes these types of illnesses all of which mainly involve heredity, trauma, environmental stressors, and biology. Although our knowledge on mental illness has grown, society’s acceptance around the disease has changed very little during the past few decades. So many people are affected by mental illnesses or have mental illnesses yet we continue to pass judgments. People with mental disorders are often …show more content…
When we see people that are different, we tend to discriminate. Being discriminated against tends to make us feel different from the rest of society, which can cause us to isolate ourselves in order to try to prevent this feeling of being different than “the societal norm”. When people who are mentally ill are discriminated against, they tend to isolate themselves from society. Many people feel that an individual with mental illness is dangerous, due to a few occasional violent outbursts that some of those whom are mentally ill may have caused. This prejudice of the mentally ill being violent results in fear and increased social distance. This social distancing can result in the experience of social isolation or loneliness on the part of people with mental illness(Psychology Today). This only helps dig them into a bigger hole, and really doesn’t help their illness. Those who have these negative views on the mentally ill tend to think they are dangerous due to many different factors many of which can involve some of the mentally ills violent behavior. But, not all of those who are mentally ill are violent, and this prejudice could be a factor to what’s causing them to act out. By creating more acceptance towards mental illness we can prevent so many people from isolating themselves, and feeling like they are alone. We can prevent this by having more schools create support groups or even in workplaces, …show more content…
People are embarrassed of who they are and don’t want people to see this side of them, “One research(link is external) review of 22 studies that focused on barriers to care and mental illness determined that stigma and embarrassment were the top reasons why people with mental illness did not engage in medication adherence”(Psychology Today). When people hear that they are mentally ill they believe that something is seriously wrong with them and are embarrassed, while in reality this is a common type of illness. The stigma has created an image that people don’t want to have define them, which drives them to avoid the illness and help they need, “Stigma and discrimination can also worsen someone's mental health problems, and delay or impede their getting help and treatment, and their recovery”(Mentalhealth.org 1). As a result the majority of those with a mental illness diagnoses don't receive any form of care: “And yet shockingly, of the 450 million people worldwide who suffer from mental health conditions, the majority (60 percent(link is external)) do not receive any form of care, with 90 percent(link is external) of people in developing countries receiving no form of care.” (Psychology Today). Many people believe that mental illnesses aren’t serious at all, some think that this is just a phase people go through, while in reality it is very serious.