What is Mental Illness?
- Aaradhana Reddy
- Jun 22, 2021
- 6 min read
Mental illnesses are the conditions that affect and bring about changes in a person’s thoughts, emotions and behavior. They can have an effect on our daily functioning, performance at work and our social lives. Mental health or mental well-being on the other hand is a person’s ability to cope with stressors using resources, realize his/her ability, work productively and contribute back to their community.
Given the stigma attached to mental health disorders, it is important to raise awareness on mental health, various and most common mental illnesses and mental health professionals that one can reach out for help.
“Every sixth Indian needs mental health help;” Common mental disorders (CMDs), including depression, anxiety disorders and substance use disorders are a huge burden. 197.3 million people were affected by mental health disorders, with 44.9 million people suffering with anxiety disorder and 45.7 million suffering from depression, in 2017. The DALYs; which is the disability adjusted life years, a measure that shows years of life lost due to disability was 2.5% in 1990 and almost doubled to 4.7% in 2017 in India. Depression contributed the most to DALYs of mental illnesses. The proportion of the population currently suffering from a mental disorder requires an active intervention. Prevalence of mental disorders in age group 13-17 years was 7.3% and nearly equal in both genders. The most common mental health disorders in India are anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and substance abuse Nearly 9.8 million of young Indians aged between 13-17 years are in need of active interventions.
But the treatment gap is extremely high in India, especially in rural areas. Treatment gap is the gap between the number of people who need mental health care and the number of people who access it. There are only about 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 people in India. According to National Mental Health Survey (NMHS), the treatment gap of any mental disorder in India was reported to be as high as 83%. This is caused by stigma attached to metal illnesses, stigma attached in going to a mental health professional, low mental health professionals and lack of awareness about mental health disorders. Hence, to reduce this high burden of mental illnesses and treatment gap, there needs to mental health awareness in India.
Mental Health Professionals
Psychology as a scientific discipline focuses on both mental health and mental illness. Its focus on mental health is through positive psychology, which focuses on character strengths, happiness, promoting optimism, hope, resilience, gratitude, forgiveness etc. It also focuses on using these concepts and character strengths to overcome or solve concerns that people face.
It focuses on mental illness, by studying various anxiety and depressive disorders, schizophrenia, substance abuse etc, to treat them through psychotherapy/counselling. A psychologist/psychotherapist/counselling psychologist all aim to treat mental health disorders by employing psychotherapy. While a psychiatrist would aim to treat through medications.
Psychology also focuses on thoughts, behavior and emotions. There are various schools/theories in psychology that deal with thoughts, behavior and emotions. Each one has their own perspectives on them. The most commonly used is Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). It is used to treat a wide variety of disorders; anxiety, general anxiety disorder, phobia, social phobia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder etc. Its core idea is that dysfunctional thoughts lead to psychological disturbances, distress and disorders. It recognizes dysfunctional thought patterns that lead to dysfunctional emotions and maladaptive behaviors. Hence, it focuses on disputing and changing the thoughts into more adaptive ones leading to more adaptive emotions and behaviors.
Clinical Psychologist: They assess, diagnose and treat people with mental illnesses or mental health disorders.
Counselling Psychologist: It is a growth-oriented field which deals with mental health disorders, everyday concerns and help in coping across the lifespan. They deal with stress, anxiety, relationship concerns, trauma etc. There is a focus on promoting mental health, growth and helping individuals become self-reliant by imparting life skills and skills needed to cope and manage concerns presented.
Psychiatrist: A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the branch of medicine which studies diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental health disorders.
Mental Illness Causes
A number factors cause mental illness. Both biological and environmental factors can trigger mental health disorders. An interaction between both the factors can also occur, resulting in mental illnesses. The diathesis stress model explains this best. If a person is predisposed to developing a mental illness, for example depression or anxiety; this vulnerability may be escalated by environmental stressors, resulting in the person developing a mental illness.
Biological factors:
Genetics: Mental illnesses can be hereditary, meaning that they can run in families for generations. The closer the relationship of an individual to the person suffering from mental illness, the more likely or chance for the individual to develop mental illness. Although a lot of other environmental factors like stress, trauma, abuse etc. can play a role in triggering mental illness.
Brain Injury: Injury to parts of brain can also trigger mental illness. After Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) development of disorders such as depression, panic disorder etc. have been observed.
Perinatal Injury: Perinatal brain damage and asphyxia is also known to be a risk factor for various mental illness.
Infections: Certain infections in childhood are linked to the development of mental illnesses in the future like depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, intellectual disabilities etc. Read more
Environmental Factors:
Childhood trauma or abuse and Neglect: Adverse childhood experiences is a major risk factor and is known to increase the likelihood of developing mental health disorders in the future. Developing depression, increased risk of suicide, substance abuse, poor emotional regulation, low self-esteem etc. are all linked to childhood trauma, abuse and neglect.
Familial Stressors: Family stressors such as divorce, death of a family member, addition of a newborn to the family are all linked to the development of mental illnesses, if they are not coped with or managed adaptively.
Major life transitions: Major life transitions such as marriage, changing jobs, shifting to a new place or abroad etc. can be stressors and act as risk factors for the development of metal illnesses.
Cultural expectations: Sometimes cultural expectations are also risk factors for the development of mental illnesses. For example: Ideal body image expectations on women and men can lead to eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, depression etc.
Mental Health Awareness
Given the high burden of mental illnesses or mental health disorders in India and around the world, it’s important to raise mental health awareness and reduce stigma attached to it. Stigma is the negative beliefs, attitudes or perception towards people suffering from mental illness leading to discrimination, rejection, fear and avoidance against them. Stigma can lead to people avoiding taking help when needed. It is a clinical risk factor which can lead to bad prognosis, due to delay in seeking help, exacerbation of mental illness, risk of relapse etc.
Breaking WALLS and Raising Mental Health Awareness
W- Watch your Language: Be aware of the discriminatory terms used to address people suffering from mental illnesses and refrain from using them. Raise awareness and correct those using such terms. Stop labelling people by their illnesses. Instead of saying mentally retarded person, say person suffering from Intellectual disability (its not called mental retardation anymore, its intellectual disability), because the person always come before their disorder or disability.
· A- Ask Questions: There are usually a lot of myths going on about mental health professionals, therapy and mental illnesses. Question them, learn about them. Talk to a psychiatrist or a psychologist.
· L- Learn: Learn more about mental health, mental illness, mental health professionals and treatments. There is large online base on the topics; go through them and understand them. Education can help you debunk myths, misunderstandings and misconceptions.
· L- Listen to Experiences: Talk to people who have lived experience of going through mental illnesses. Most of our stereotypes and negative attitudes are held because we have less exposure and take in what is said about them. These myths and stereotypes can come from family, friends or even media. But once we meet them, listen to them with understanding and empathy we start to realize that they are not true. It helps us get over the stereotypes, negative perceptions and attitudes. Thus, reducing discrimination. If you have lived experiences consider sharing your story to raise awareness.
· S- Speak Out: If you see others discriminating, using derogatory words, stigmatizing people with mental disorders or spreading myths, speak out. Correct them and raise awareness.
The following document consists of the common myths about mental illnesses debunked.
Spread awareness through various modes of communication.
Health constitutes being physically, mentally and socially healthy. Mental health is as important as physical health. If you are in need of mental health help, please do not hesitate to take help.
References and Additional Readings
National Mental Health Survey of India, 2015-16. http://indianmhs.nimhans.ac.in/Docs/Summary.pdf
India State level Disease Burden Initiative. (2019). The burden of mental disorders across the states of India: The Global Burden of Disease Study 1990–2017. Lancet Psychiatry , 1-14.
Zimlich, R. (2018, February 18). Role of infectious disease in mental illness development. Retrieved from Contemporary Pediatrics : https://www.contemporarypediatrics.com/view/role-infectious-disease-mental-illness-development
Garg, K., Kumar, C. N., & Chandra, P. S. (2019). Number of psychiatrists in India: Baby steps forward, but a long way to go. Indian Journal of Psychiatry , 104-105.
Mental Health Lesson Plans- Can we talk- Mental Health and High School Curriculum Guide from the Canadian Mental Health Association, Mental Health Lesson Plans - Can We Talk
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