Mental health Disorders
Mental Health > Mental health Disorders
Nowadays, just about every person that you could meet suffers from some sort of mental or psychological disorder. Everyone seems to suffer from some sort of phobia or other, or they have larger problems like anxiety disorders or mental health disorders. The fact is that people aren’t simply suffering more than they used to, they are just voicing their problems more than they used to. Back in the day nobody wanted to admit that they weren’t perfectly happy and “normal” because of the stigma attached to those who came forward. It used to be that people were considered insane or were ostracized if they were diagnosed with any sort of mental problem. Thank goodness that attitudes are slowly changing.
Mental health disorders can range in the thousands these days. People suffer from various things like ADD, ADHD, schizophrenia, multiple personalities, and extreme phobias like agoraphobia (fear of going outside), and refuse to even leave their homes. Some won’t even leave their rooms. As these disorders are getting more and more commonplace, we are beginning to encounter new problems.
It used to be that anyone that had a legitimate mental disorder was locked away from other people and were given useless and often violent and harmful treatments to overcome their problems. With the stigma being gone, people are now learning that they can almost justify any type of behavior by claiming that they suffer from some mental disorder or another. A good example of the ‘invented’ disorder can found in the case of the hillside strangler which took place during the late 70’s and early 80’s. One of the perpetrators of the crime claimed to suffer from multiple personality disorder, but was later found to be lying after undergoing ‘hypnosis’ and he was subsequently sentenced for his crimes.
It is in times like these that we realize that although people that
genuinely suffer from these mental health disorders should not be
stigmatized for having them, we should also be cautious about how these
cases are diagnosed. This just shows that although some of the stigmas
about mental health disorders are ebbing, people like the person
mentioned in the above paragraph are ensuring that the process is still
moving too slowly. Perhaps if the stigma weren’t still attached to
mental health disorders, Columbine wouldn’t have happened.