Submitted By Jayati Bhattacharjee and Jessica Zones
There are many myths surrounding mental illness. It is time people get a clearer picture on this and learn to distinguish between facts and myths.
Recent studies state that one among five Canadian adults who are under the age of 65 will face mental illness. This statement does imply that at some point almost everybody will have certain mental problems. Unfortunately, many people are still unaware about the exact traits that conclude a person’s mental disorder.
So today let us clear off the ambiguities surrounding the traits responsible for mental illness.
Let us unfold five of those myths bordering on mental illness below:
- Addiction towards Alcohol and Drugs is because of Lack of Willpower – Many are of the opinion that addiction towards these kind of drugs is because people lack the right motivation and determination in life. They have a lot of frustration leading to their drinking. It is time to break this myth because research says that addiction towards drugs is due to genetics and the environmental factors. The mental illness that drug addicts suffer from is depression.
- Bad Parenting Plays a Crucial Role – This is one of oldest myths that people say when they see a child facing some mental problems. Without trying to figure out the kid’s problem, they conclude that it is a result of bad parenting. Experts are of the opinion that families are not responsible for their child’s mental problem. On the contrary these parents play a crucial role during the recovery process of trying to bring back their kid to normalcy.
- Electric Shock Therapy is of No Good – Many parents feel that the electric shock therapy is a torture that their child need not go through. But researchers highlighted that the shock therapy is a highly effective treatment that has shown great results in curing certain kinds of mental disorder. The electroconvulsive therapy works brilliantly in curing the problems since the problem is unresponsive to the other medical procedures.
- Aging Process is the Reason Behind their Mental Problem – This is the greatest myth that people tend to conclude towards their aging parents. The proven fact is depression and lack of interest in their daily activities is one of the major reason for their depression. It this depression that takes the shape of a mental problem. This problem gets further aggravated due to the lack of attention they receive from others.
- Post the Diagnosis You Remain Crazy for the Rest of Your Life – Diagnosis is just a procedure that states that you suffer from mental problem. This is no way means that you will remain crazy till the day you die. Diagnosis is the first step towards a clinical treatment. So if you suffer from mental illness, then don’t worry because medical procedure will take care of your current situation and improve your condition.
These are the greatest myths that people have about others suffering from mental disorder. If you also had such opinions then remember that they are just myths with not much truth in them.
Author bio: Jessica Zones is a blogger by passion and psychologist by profession based in California. Her experience in this field helps her to state the 5 greatest myths surrounding mental illness of all time.
Electric Shock Therapy is an outdated, inhumane method of treatment. It’s borderline criminal.
I’ll have to disagree in regards to parenting as well. While sure if a child has a certain disorder family plays a key role in helping, yet cannot tell me that a child that is abused won’t suffer mentally regardless of the type of abuse.