Background of Mental Disorders:
Mental disorders come in all shapes and sizes in the brain. It can trigger different parts of the brain, making us act or think that way. Mental disorders travel back all the way through history. Back then, everyone thought that a mental illness was a religious punishment or a demonic possession. Each culture had the same view on the mentally ill. "During the Middle Ages, the mentally ill were believed to be possessed or in need of religion." "In the 18th century in the U.S., the patients were treated badly. Leading to stigmatization and unhygienic confinement." (uniteforsight). Nowadays, mentally ill are treated with caution and care. Today's definition of a mental disorder is "a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological or development process underlying mental functioning." (Psychology Today)
sources: http://www.uniteforsight.org/mental-health/module2 , https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rethinking-psychology/201307/the-new-definition-mental-disorder
First page of the essay:
Is a Mental Illness Just a Disease or is There More to it?
The way the world sees a mental disorder is not normal. There is something wrong and everyone knows that. They see it and observe. The history of a mental disorder is not a happy ending. It was a dark and cruel time for people who suffered from one. “The mentally ill were treated poorly and said to be witches. In the 1600s, Europeans began to isolate those with mental illness, often treating them inhumanly and chaining them to walls or keeping them in dungeons. The mentally ill were often housed with the disabled, vagrants and delinquents.” (Tracy). Back then, people were frightened of them and afraid of catching this outrageous disease. Heading to the future of today, we are no longer afraid and can have proper care. Still, mental disorders are one of the most confusing and challenging disorders to understand. A lot of the misunderstanding is the stigma acknowledging mental illness due to the judgment from others. People fear what they do not understand.
Understanding Borderline Personality Disorders is the first step to accomplishing the true meaning of it. This personality disorder is one of many. It is a tricky one to diagnose and can be a difficult path for the person living with it. Personality disorders have different types, there is obsessive-compulsive disorder, dependent, paranoid, narcissistic, antisocial and borderline personality disorder. “BPD is a disorder involving instability in many areas of life, including emotions, relationships, behavior, and identity.” (Chapman 19)
Sources:1. http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/the-history-of-mental-illness/ , (Borderline Personality Disorder, A guide for the Newly Diagnosed, Alexander Chapman, pg.19) < Book source
(My essay will also include many things on criminals, criminology, their crimes, how mental disorders made them behave this way, which treatment is best, and more. This will all be later in the essay!)
