Journal Article Paper: The stigmatization of people with mental illnesses - Essay Example

The Stigmatization of People with Mental Illnesses al affiliation The stigmatization of people with mental illnesses Summary of the ArticleThe study on stigmatization of people with mental illness was conducted all over the Great Britain with 1737 people participating. From the study, there is a great rate of stigmatization of the mentally ill people despite the fact that people have the knowledge of treatment and healing of the patients. The most affected people are those with schizophrenia, alcoholism and drug addiction.

People fear relating with people suffering from the above condition terming them as unpredictable and dangerous. The same group of people are termed as hard to talk to and hence left out of the society on their own. For patients with eating disorders, alcoholism and drug addiction, there was a large response that the conditions are self-inflicted by the patients. Hence limiting the help and understanding that can be provided by the community at large (Crisp, Gelder, Rix, Meltzer, & Rowlands, 2000).

Application the new information gained to the field discussed in classThe three mentioned mental disorders that include schizophrenia, alcoholism and drug addiction are termed as the most unpredictable and dangerous people to be around with. The information is gained directly from the respondents who interact with these patients. From the knowledge gained in class on the behavioral characteristics of people suffering from this conditions, supports the opinion. At times, people addicted with drugs when high in drugs make impaired judgment hence sometimes turning violent.

The same case applies to the schizophrenic patients who have that bizarre behavior. People with eating disorders are termed as to self-inflict themselves, however, from class lessons most of the conditions associated with eating are affected centrally from the different body’s physiological changes. Therefore, the idea that the eating disorder patients have control over their actions is not always true. Dementia is the degenerative disorder that is irreversible; people with this condition are harmless though difficult to talk about.

The study reaffirms the fact that this condition is irreversible.With social stigmatization, mentally ill patients receive social isolation hence denied a chance to fill the suffering experience in their day-to-day life. The article reaffirms the fact that mentally ill patients are faced with much stigma in the society. The percentages show that there are wide ranges of stigmatizing opinions that are tagged to each disorder. At the same time, the opinions differ from one mental disorder to another therefore it gives limelight on what to tackle when curbing the stigmatization issues in the society (Arboleda-Flórez & Stuart, 2012).

ConclusionStigmatization among the mentally ill patients has been detrimental to the healing process. At the same time, it causes mental torture to both the family of the mental ill patient and the patient himself. The stigma ultimately leads to social isolation of the patients. By so doing, the patients are always left on their own with nobody to talk which in turn leads to further complications and even developing of depression.It is clear from the article that there is a wide variety of stigmatizing opinions.

One has a lot to learn from the article on the way to handle the mentally ill patients. Key among them is communication with the mentally ill patients. Moreover, it is learnt that all the conditions are treatable to a point that one returns to normal life with continued proper management, although dementia is an exception. Therefore, stigmatization should be reduced in the society by campaigning to reduce discrimination ad increase the knowledge of people on the conditions.ReferencesArboleda-Flórez, J.

, & Stuart, H. (2012). From sin to science: Fighting the stigmatization of mental illnesses. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.Crisp, A. H., Gelder, M. G., Rix, S., Meltzer, H. I., & Rowlands, O. J. (2000). Stigmatisation of people with mental illnesses. The British Journal of Psychiatry : The Journal of Mental Science, 177, 4–7.