Normalizing and Treating Mental Illness

Normalizing and Treating Mental Illness
Author: Charles E. Williams, Ph.D.
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2012-03-23
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1456863398

This book argues that mental illness does not just happen. Whereas physical disabilities and developmental disabilities can occur at birth, mental illness and personality disorders come about within a complex process of human development involving socialization, child rearing and nurturance, genetic predisposition, societal norms, and environmental aspects as well as intrinsic internal phenomena (thought, mood, attitude) taking place in the individual. The book advocates for the open and unstigmatized recognition and treatment of emotional/psychiatric aberrations. It goes even further to advocate for the utilization of every resource possible to alleviate the travails of mental illness. The book plead is for tolerance, attainment of more knowledge about the subject, understanding, acceptance, objectivity, and an impartial unbiased way of thinking in dealing with mental illness as a part of life.. This book emphasizes that the mind, body, and spirit are renewed through appropriate therapeutic, pharmacological, and medical interventions. Psychotherapy is a very important part of this process. The book suggests that psychotherapy is not just “talk” but includes verbal release, advocacy, case management, assistance in emotional and social empowerment, and reciprocal interchange in an interactive process between the patient and the therapist. The use of strengths and resources is an important mechanism in the therapeutic process. The most prevalent disorders of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia are presented. Childhood disorders of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Impulse Control Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder and Autism are discussed in a chapter on children. Dual diagnoses of mental illness and substance abuse are also an area of attention. Other topics of focus are religion and religiosity in mental illness; the interstitiality of diagnoses, symptoms, and dynamics in mental illness; and the variables of human development in relation to personality and personality disorders. Music and its relationship to emotions is briefly mentioned. Techniques of intervention, including individual therapy, group therapy, case management, advocacy, and day treatment are also foci of discussion.

Normalizing Mental Illness and Neurodiversity in Entertainment Media

Normalizing Mental Illness and Neurodiversity in Entertainment Media
Author: Malynnda Johnson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2021-04-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000377350

This volume examines the shift toward positive and more accurate portrayals of mental illness in entertainment media, asking where these succeed and considering where more needs to be done. With studies that identify and analyze the characters, viewpoints, and experiences of mental illness across film and television, it considers the messages conveyed about mental illness and reflects on how the different texts reflect, reinforce, or challenge sociocultural notions regarding mental illness. Presenting chapters that explore a range of texts from film and television, covering a variety of mental health conditions, including autism, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and more, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology, cultural and media studies, and mental health.

All We Have to Fear

All We Have to Fear
Author: Allan V. Horwitz, PhD
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2012-06
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0199793751

Thirty years ago, it was estimated that less than five percent of the population had an anxiety disorder. Today, some estimates are over fifty percent, a tenfold increase. Is this dramatic rise evidence of a real medical epidemic?In All We Have to Fear, Allan Horwitz and Jerome Wakefield argue that psychiatry itself has largely generated this "epidemic" by inflating many natural fears into psychiatric disorders, leading to the over-diagnosis of anxiety disorders and the over-prescription of anxiety-reducing drugs. American psychiatry currently identifies disordered anxiety as irrational anxiety disproportionate to a real threat. Horwitz and Wakefield argue, to the contrary, that it can be a perfectly normal part of our nature to fear things that are not at all dangerous--from heights to negative judgments by others to scenes that remind us of past threats (as in some forms of PTSD). Indeed, this book argues strongly against the tendency to call any distressing condition a "mental disorder." To counter this trend, the authors provide an innovative and nuanced way to distinguish between anxiety conditions that are psychiatric disorders and likely require medical treatment and those that are not--the latter including anxieties that seem irrational but are the natural products of evolution. The authors show that many commonly diagnosed "irrational" fears--such as a fear of snakes, strangers, or social evaluation--have evolved over time in response to situations that posed serious risks to humans in the past, but are no longer dangerous today.Drawing on a wide range of disciplines including psychiatry, evolutionary psychology, sociology, anthropology, and history, the book illuminates the nature of anxiety in America, making a major contribution to our understanding of mental health.

Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders

Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2016-09-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309439124

Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

Common Mental Health Disorders

Common Mental Health Disorders
Author: National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (Great Britain)
Publisher: RCPsych Publications
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2011
Genre: Health services accessibility
ISBN: 9781908020314

Bringing together treatment and referral advice from existing guidelines, this text aims to improve access to services and recognition of common mental health disorders in adults and provide advice on the principles that need to be adopted to develop appropriate referral and local care pathways.

Cognitive-behavior Therapy for Severe Mental Illness

Cognitive-behavior Therapy for Severe Mental Illness
Author: Jesse H. Wright
Publisher: American Psychiatric Pub
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2009
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1585623210

This practical and insightful guide distills into one volume CBT techniques for individual therapy and video demonstrations on DVD that illustrate how these techniques can be used to tackle a wide range of severe clinical problems.

Social Phobia

Social Phobia
Author: Richard G. Heimberg
Publisher: Guilford Press
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1995-10-27
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9781572300125

In this book, internationally renowned contributors fill a critical gap in the literature by providing an overview of current work in the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of social phobia, the third most common psychiatric disorder.

A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health

A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health
Author: Allan V. Horwitz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 700
Release: 1999-04-13
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780521567633

This book offers the first comprehensive presentation of the sociology of mental health and illness, including original, contemporary contributions by experts in the relevant aspects of the field. Divided into three sections, the chapters cover the general perspectives in the field, the social determinants of mental health, and current policy areas affecting mental health services. The Sociology of Mental Health and Illness is designed for classroom use in sociology, social work, human relations, human services, and psychology. With its useful definitions, overview of the historical, social, and institutional frameworks for understanding mental health and illness, and non-technical style, the text is suitable for advanced undergraduate or lower level graduate students.

Mind Fixers: Psychiatry's Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness

Mind Fixers: Psychiatry's Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness
Author: Anne Harrington
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 477
Release: 2019-04-16
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1324001976

“Superb… a nuanced account of biological psychiatry.” —Richard J. McNally In Mind Fixers, “the preeminent historian of neuroscience” (Science magazine) Anne Harrington explores psychiatry’s repeatedly frustrated efforts to understand mental disorder. She shows that psychiatry’s waxing and waning theories have been shaped not just by developments in the clinic and lab, but also by a surprising range of social factors. Mind Fixers recounts the past and present struggle to make mental illness a biological problem in order to lay the groundwork for creating a better future.

Reducing the Stigma of Mental Illness

Reducing the Stigma of Mental Illness
Author: Norman Sartorius
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2005-05-26
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780521549431

Details the results of the Open Doors Programme, set up to fight the stigma/discrimination attached to schizophrenia.