Madness is Misunderstood - A Fresh Outlook on Mental Health

It's no secret that people with a mental illness are consistently ostracized, misunderstood and labelled as society's lepers by everyone from the misinformed public, to the media and entertainment industry.

Personally, this doesn't surprise me in the slightest. It is an unfortunate side-effect of a society desperate to appear organised and well-informed that anything it doesn't properly understand is seen as threatening and socially unacceptable.

Need evidence? Here are a list of things that have been demonised, outcast, or made taboo at some point in history because the world hasn't understood them properly:

•Homosexuality
•Racial equality
•Gender equality
•Atheism
•Tattoos
•Countless Religeous Beliefs
•Disability
•Unemployment
•The Poor
•Homelessness
•Street Art
•Jazz

Mental Illness is just another of those things that is just too complex and controversial for the world to comprehend yet, although 20% of us will supposedly suffer from one during our lifetime. Whereas, after many thousands of years of intensive research, we can understand that bacteria, viruses and fungi are the verified cause of physical illness, mental illness is an almost entirely new concept that divides the science community not only on how it works and the causes behind its occurrence, but also on how it should be treated. Here are some of the ways that we have historically attempted to deal with the awkward and sensitive existence of mental health issues:





Panorama exposes the disgusting physical abuse of mentally and physically handicapped patients of UK "care home" Winterborne View

Mental health treatment today is a far cry from the dingy and dark corridors of  institutions like the Danvers State Mental Asylum (pictured above), which darkly thrived on electric shock therapy throughout the 1950s, but met it's ultimate demise in 1992 when the doors closed for the final time. However, changes in psychiatry saw the number of people given medication for a mental health issue increasing by five times in the same period. Is therapy and understanding for mental health issues really improving, or are pharmaceutical companies influencing diagnoses and taking money treating the issues of your everyday person with drugs no more effective than placebos in treating the 'chemical imbalance' in the brains of those facing mental challenges?

Altering the chemical balance of the brain, and with it the state of mind of the patient,  is rife throughout the USA, the UK, and, in particular, New Zealand, as a  method of helping mental health patients cope with their issues. Seretonin and Dopamine (happy chemicals) levels are changed in the hope that they permanently adjust. The problem for me is that this does not always happen, leaving ordinary people who may not have had a problem in the first place dependant on an expensive pill, often lovingly crammed with side effects, in order to get through the day.

Some food for thought: Perhaps the term 'mental illness' is inherantly flawed, leading the public towards a certain opinion on the people in society who have thought processes deviating from the norm. Tweets about "#mentalhealth"



Just as a footnote, I've started working with local mental health charity SAFE (Suicide Awareness For Everyone) as a committee member creating materials for, organising and carrying out events promoting awareness for mental health issues, and how they are both common and manageable. Advice and support is also offered. Here's a poster I have made as part of the whole shenanigan; of course if anyone can actually make the event, feel free!