What is Mental Illness?

What is Mental Illness?

To put things into simple terms, mental illness is defined as a collection of various mental disorders which affect one's thinking, mood, and/or behavior. Some common examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia but the list does not stop there. Everyone feels anxious or "down in the dumps" from time to time but that does not signify the presence of a mental illness. What signifies a mental illness are these constant feelings of anxiety or depression that control an individual's life day after day after day, ultimately affecting their ability to properly function on a daily basis. Mental illness has been extremely controversial in the past but is finally being accepted by society as of late. This is a huge step in the right direction considering how many people are dealing with mental illnesses all over the world. In the United States alone, approximately one in five individuals have some sort of mental illness, yet only forty percent receive proper treatment for illness ("Mental Illness by the Numbers"). Believe it or not, many writers, dating back hundreds of years, have also suffered from various different mental illnesses which can be seen in their works. One of these individuals happens to be Edgar Allan Poe who is famous for his gothic works such as "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee". Due to the lack of knowledge at the time, many of these writers were unable to receive proper treatment for the illnesses they had been dealing with. Thanks to the increased knowledge we have today, there is an ability to attempt to curb the symptoms of these debilitating diseases. As this topic of mental illness has become much more socially accepted by society, one can hope that those suffering from these debilitating mental diseases will seek proper medical treatment in order to take back control of their life.

Mayo Clinic Staff. “Mental Illness.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 13 Oct. 2015, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mental-illness/symptoms-causes/syc-20374968.

“Mental Health By The Numbers.” NAMI, www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-By-the-Numbers.