Mental Illness Experience

Worldwide this disease affects people in all ages with a disease progression where it has social, physical, environmental and genetic influences. The answer to the question of how people experience mental illness relies on the individuals, because much like physical illness the risk and disease experience is individually determined. In the past of the childhood years experiencing trauma and/or abuse may increase the risk of developing this disease. It is simply because of the alterations of person’s attitudes, thoughts and behavior after the experienced trauma. Since everyone is experiencing the life from a different angle their social environment, their actions, life events, gender, age all connect together in setting our mental health. This is the reason behind the fact that everyone in this universe may develop a mental illness.

Mental illness has a chronic disease progression from mild to severe cases. Good news is that the research conducted by National Empowerment Center has shown that people can fully recover from even the most severe forms of mental illness. There is always a hope.

Depending on their recent research, WHO (World Health Organization) has stated that the percentage of recovery from severe mental illness is far better in third world countries than in Western societies. When people have positive views about the recovery, the higher is the results. Everyone should remember that each person is different and although the symptoms are common for the different types of mental illness, people may be experiencing from variety of the symptoms. Since each patient is different they may be suffering the disease from many different angles. Although they experience mental illness in a variety of ways, patients are likely to share certain aspects of the illness. For example, many people with mental illness feel stigmatized, ostracized, or even patronized by other people, including members of the health care system. Some feel that others are controlling their lives, which may be true if the patient is unable to do so. While some of these perceptions may be true, they may also be symptoms of the illness itself, as is the case with delusions and hallucinations often experienced by people with schizophrenia. People with mental illness also experience fear, worrying that their symptoms will worsen, that they may be imprisoned or confined to a hospital or treatment center, that they will not recover or will have relapses, or that they will be unable to work or care for their families. They also may fear prescribed medications and their side effects. While it is difficult to fully understand how people experience symptoms of mental illness, the accompanying testimonials by patients with schizophrenia vividly illustrate how severe symptoms can distort perceptions and disrupt lives.