IndexIntroduction to the StudyTypes of Mental IllnessesBorderline Personality Disorder or BPDThe Effects Mental Illness Has on SocietyConclusionHave you or someone you know ever exhibited characteristics that create isolation from those who surround you? appear extremely worried, avoid others, lose interest in usual activities, and/or feel disproportionate guilt? These are just some of the symptoms of mental illness. They don't always mean you have a mental illness unless they last more than two weeks. The main problem is that society is missing, i.e. it is not just an individual problem when a mental problem is involved. An individual with a mental illness can not only harm himself but can harm others. In my opinion, society should step up and make the choice to assist in creating a way to help others with mental health issues. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Introduction to the study In my opinion, the chosen topic is related to the information in the textbook because everything within the company is about policies. The textbook discusses the history, challenges, and changes we see every day for people with mental illnesses. He discusses the hardships they have had to and continue to endure to this day. There is also the knowledge of people who took steps that changed history in some way, so that the next person can learn to help those who needed it not only today but tomorrow. The policy of this study is the understanding, safety, and care needed for those living with many different types of mental illnesses. When you consider how this relates to criminal justice, there are many people who are put on the witness stand every day for an action they committed. Many may be found guilty but their mental state is never considered. For an individual to be diagnosed with a mental illness, numerous studies must be conducted. Many people with mental health problems believe that they are the only ones suffering from the specific problem when in reality they are not. According to The Family Guide to Mental Health Care, “50% of mental illnesses occur by age 14 and 75% by age 24.” Without real mental health care for those who cannot afford it, there is a real worldwide problem with lives at risk. There are a small number of people who suffer from mental illnesses who tend to become committed at some point in their lives because they are unable to deal with the symptoms of the illness. The healthcare system suggests that people with a mental illness receive the necessary medical attention they would need to have the finances to pay for it. Then there are those who cannot afford treatment and are encouraged not to seek treatment because there is no funding for them. For those who do not receive the medical care necessary to maintain a normal life, the chances of suicide are higher than for those who receive treatment. In the long term, allowing individuals with mental illnesses to receive the help they need could change outcomes for those without. The breadth of information that can be learned from the information provided can provide current researchers with prior knowledge about mental illnesses. Knowing just a little more about any topic can help you change the past for a better future. The best way to understand a mental illness is to know a common definition of the word because the word is not the best description of it and it is notI understood that it is a disease. Mental illness is described as “a disruption or disturbance in cognition, emotion regulation, and/or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in a psychological, biological, or developmental process underlying mental functioning.” Unfortunately, when a mental illness affects and affects most, if not all, important activities in the person's life. Mental illness is not just one specific illness but a multiplicity of different illnesses that may or may not be combined. There are "significant changes for about two weeks or more and affect behavior, mood and impair thinking function." People diagnosed with a mental illness are “not complaining, pretending, seeking attention, or wallowing in a bad mood,” they are real people with a real illness. A mental illness is not just a specific illness in its own right, but is multiple in different ways. The disease "often coexists, for example, with depression and anxiety or with post-traumatic stress disorder with alcoholism." Along with the illness that co-occurs with mental illness, there are other physical health conditions that also come into the equation. Some of the most common health conditions are diabetes, heart disease, asthma, Parkinson's disease, and/or cancer. So simply saying that a mental illness is an illness is a soft way of saying that a person is ill. Some examples of mental illnesses include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and addiction disorders. According to the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, a mental health problem becomes a mental illness when persistent signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect the ability to function" (2015). Any of the mental illnesses mentioned above can cause chaos in an environment life of the individual without the proper assistance. Types of mental illnesses Schizophrenia, acute psychotic disorder and bipolar disorder One of the mental illnesses that is important to know is schizophrenia because this is an illness that is not always understood Crazy People, "you know so little about schizophrenia that neuropsychiatrists and researchers hesitate to offer a definitive theory of causality" (Powers, 2017). It is known that between 1998 and 2007 more than thirty thousand articles on the disease were published and that since then production has increased to about five thousand a year. "The disease has in common with cancer, it is the companion of a catastrophic affliction, an almost otherworldly impossibility of definitively understanding and curing." A small portion of society will be diagnosed with schizophrenia. “Approximately 2 million Americans and approximately 1% of the world's adult population will suffer from schizophrenia in their lifetime.” We moved to San Antonio, Texas in 2008 from Germany and about a year later some close friends also moved to the same base. We were all neighbors in Germany, traveling on our days off and raising our youngest children together. In 2011, a dear friend of ours had gone through some problems from immediate family to extended family. He would come to church with us every Sunday and then our two families would have lunch afterwards. On Sunday we did everything as usual and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The following Monday we received a phone call where this friend was waiting for his wife to get home from work before deciding to take the easy way out. He never considered those he would leave behind or those who were there for him in his time of need. Later, we learned that he came from a family with schizophrenia and bipolar, but he refused to get help because it would affect his military career. Ultimately, it affects livesof those who loved him most and we will never have the chance to help him overcome his pain. When considering eating and personality disorders, there are specific ages or genders that it is specific to. In past studies there have been many findings that most of the people affected by anorexia were women, but with the evolution of times, so are those who seek answers in anorexia. There are two types of eating disorders affecting today's society: anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is when an individual is purging their body of whatever objects they put into their body. Studies show that when people leave home for the first time (e.g. college) is when they begin to feel the weight and stress of life pushing them to turn in a direction that can become dangerous. Some of the symptoms occur when he or she starts complaining about their weight or something like that. When weight becomes a factor in their life, the individual will become "overzealous dieters in which weight loss is so extreme that efforts are made to hide it under baggy clothing or to avoid being touched so as not to feel the bones protruding" . Eating behaviors will begin to change and/or perhaps their usual way of eating will become non-existent, it may even get to the point that they will spend a lot of time in the bathroom. During several moments in the bathroom, there is a possibility that they will vomit. According to The Family, Guide to Mental Healthcare “eating behaviors tend to become secretive, with young people not wanting to participate in family meals.” The end result of an individual with Anorexia Nervosa is stunted physical development in most cases and death in others. Bulimia Nervosa is described when a person binge eats and then purges. Many who suffer from bulimia "may exercise excessively and complain about being fat or say other negative, often distorted, things about their bodies." As in anorexia nervosa, eating is kept secret and there are many trips to the bathroom to purge. A red flag for this disease is "red flags are calluses or sores on the hands and damaged teeth and gums (from repeated purging)." Borderline Personality Disorder or BPD Another disease that has a co-occurrence with anorexia and bulimia nervosa is Borderline Personality Disorder or BPD. “People with bipolar disorder can be difficult, to put it mildly.” Their moods are set randomly and can change in the blink of an eye without a second thought. Lloyd Sederer writes that "a time when a person with borderline personality disorder may seem happy with your company one minute and furious with you the next." Their lives are a constant "tornado" of ups and downs that affect everything in their lives. Researchers have studied that individuals with this disease have "trouble maintaining friendships, frequent school transfers or school dropouts, and risky behavior." Depression and Anxiety Disorder The last one that I find important is depression since it is an illness that can be considered a silent killer. Dr. Pareka defines “depression (major depressive disorder) as a common, serious medical illness that negatively affects how a person feels, thinks, and acts” (2017). Depression can affect a person throughout their life and they would never know it because not many know what the actual symptoms are at that age. In my opinion, there is a reason for everything that happens in a person's body and it should be considered important until proven otherwise. Some of the most common symptoms are mood swings, changes in appetite, loss of energy or fatigue, and/or increased activityaimless physics. These are symptoms of depression but when viewed by an individual from the outside they could be considered actions for other reasons. A woman's mood could be seen as a monthly guest or male relationship problems. This is just one example of how a symptom could be seen as something completely different from depression. According to The Family Gude of Mental Health Care, depression comes in many forms, but the most common form is non-psychotic. There are three types of depression within the depression category and they are Atypical, Dysthymia and Psychotic is described as the reversal of symptoms (sleeping for more than 8 hours but still fatigued), Dysthymia explained as a Greek word meaning "sick mood or abnormal and refers to a chronically low mood that is present almost every day and lasts for more than 2 years and which is defined as Psychotic as being so severe that the mood disturbance due to the loss of reality manifests in delusions and auditory hallucinations (Sederer, 2015). The Family Guide to Mental Health Care, previous research shows that “7% of adults per year, 21 million Americans per year, and 1 in 5 will suffer from depression in their lifetime. ". The only true story I can tell about depression is one about myself and growing up with the disease without ever knowing it. I grew up with a mother who every day made sure I knew I had destroyed her marriage. She made sure I knew I was too fat and that no man would ever want me because of my weight. I didn't want them to be there, so I tried the easy way out and when that didn't work I lived with that information until I closed down and created a mental armor around me. I became so good that I could join the army and do my job better than others because I created a hardened exterior around me. It wasn't until I started working with a supervisor who decided I was truly useless in his eyes because I was a woman that everything fell apart. I let myself fall back into that place and after that I couldn't find my place of hardened exterior. This time though I was lucky, I had created a relationship with someone who knew my past and had been with me long enough to know the paths I would take to make the pain stop. He saved my life in more ways than one and was by my side while I got the help I needed and is by my side today, almost 20 years later. I still have tough days, but we get through them with our four kids. They all know about the diagnosis and can read me like a book, so they know what I need and know how to act or react. My mother still comes to me and says there's nothing wrong with me and that I just want attention, but I learned a long time ago to smile and nod. My mantra is "we can't choose our parents, we can only choose to love them" and I have nothing but love for her because that's what my family taught me to do. The Effects of Mental Illness on Society Mental illness statistics and research and studies seem to apply to a small portion of society, but in reality the illness affects more than we think. Studies, research and studies only work for those who are trying to find help, but what about those who don't want the label. These are the people who walk beside us, eat near us, and/or are our best friends but we never know. The label “mental illness” can change how someone is viewed so that we can understand why people choose not to come forward with questions or help for medical problems. So the question, “What are the effects of mental illness on society?” There are more.