MENTAL DISORDERS
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Written by Pen Undersky
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
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The problem. Mental illness is one of our chief health problems. It is estimated that half the hospital beds in the country are occupied by persons suffering from some mental disturbance. How to prevent and how to cure such' disorders are two of the most serious questions we have to face in our world today. However, the outlook is more and motel hopeful, for in the last ten or fifteen years much progress has been made.
One of the great steps forward has been a change in the way people in general feel toward mental ills. Not too many years ago, it was thought that that sort of disease could not be cured not even be improved. The person who was too seriously out of tune with life around him could only be "put away" ¬to the embarrassment and despair of his. family. Now, however, people have learned that there is good hope of re¬covery for many. There is good hope of improvement for many others.
This change has come about for two reasons. First, because of wide public discussion, mental disorders no longer seem strange ills about which nothing is known and for which nothing can be done. Second, and more important, be¬cause of a growing knowledge of the mind and how it works, doctors now have specific procedures that can be ap¬plied in treating such disorders. Prevention, however, is even more im¬portant than cure. Along with this new knowledge has come greater understand¬ing of why people become mentally ill and of what measures can be taken to guard against their doing so. An under¬standing of the conditions in family or social life that may bring about a "nerv¬ous breakdown," or an even more serious mental disorder, can make people aware of problems that may develop. It can also help people to avoid them.
Parents may notice, for example, that their son is painfully shy. He does not enjoy doing things with other young people. He does not talk easily with them. He seems always to be on the edges of groups, never in them. When his friends go to a dance or a basketball game, he sits at home and reads-or he
daydreams.
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