Brain Disorders Analyzed  

6950 Analy Ave 

Sebastopol, CA 95472 

(707) 338-0177 

Mental Health Awareness 

and Stigma  
22 May 2019 

INTRODUCTION  

One in five people will suffer with a mental illness in their lifetime, and almost everyone 
knows someone who has been diagnosed with a mental illness. Often, anxiety will lead to 
depression, and without treatment--being medication, therapy, or communication with a family 
member or trusted friend--symptoms often get worse. With society's impact on mental health 
consisting of dangerous stigmas and prejudice that hurts people experiencing mental illnesses, 
many are unable to get the treatment they need. The members of our society see mental illness 
as the man in a mental asylum or the drug addict on the corner; however, mental illnesses are 
usually only seen by the beholder. With mental health being jokes in school and misrepresented 
in media, those who face mental illness are too afraid of stigma and judgment to receive the help 
they need to get better.  

STATEMENT OF NEED  

With one in four teenagers having anxiety, and one in five people having a mental illness, 
mental illnesses and diseases are becoming more and more prevalent. Mental illnesses occur in 
your brain and are recently being called brain disorders instead. When you develop a mental 
illness, symptoms often fail to show until many years later. With this in mind, it is often very 
difficult to treat a mental illness effectively and quickly when the illness has been in your brain for 
so long.  

 
 
 

There are two major types of mental illness: those you inherit and those you develop (with 
there sometimes being a combination of the two). Inherited mental illnesses are those you are 
either born with, or occur without the interaction of factors from the world around you; however, 
they may be “sparked” by an event occuring in your life. Examples of these are autism, ADHD 
and ADD, and bipolar disorder. Developed mental illnesses are illnesses caused by factors 
including stress, substances, relationships, and family. Some examples are depression, anxiety, 
and substance abuse. A hybrid of both types would be a developed mental illness’ probability of 
development being increased by how many immediate family members have said mental illness. 
For example, many members of my family are alcoholics, a form of substance abuse. This causes 
me to be at higher risk of becoming an alcoholic than someone who has no family members that 
are alcoholics. Same is true for depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or any form of mental illness.  

This is also where nature versus nurture comes into play. The theory of nature versus 
nurture entails that as one grows up, he or she is influenced into who he or she will become by 
human nature, being genetics and just our physical makeup, and by nurture, how our 
parents/guardians raise us and what we experience as we grow up. The probability of having a 
mental illness is also determined by what you experience as a child. A common example of an 
experience related mental disorder is PTSD, 
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. These mental 
illnesses are the hardest to treat since there 
are very negative connotations associated 
with them, but often talking with a therapist or 
psychiatrist supplies positive results. 
Medication can be given and works well for 
most patients (Mcleod). How mental illness is 
treated is up to the person in experience, and 
is different for everyone.  

 
 
 

WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?  

1. Teach open mindedness 

2. Educate our populations  

3. Implement proper treatment and 

minimize stigma 

The first step for treating mental illness is 

to teach everyone to be open minded to all 
people. This will be the hardest step of them all. It can be difficult to teach an old dog new tricks, 
but in an article by Christopher Dwyer, “How to Change People’s Minds”, he illustrates 
step-by-step methods on how to change someone's mind effectively and easily. He often talks 
about however, how one needs to be open minded to be taught new things. We first need to 
teach open mindedness before we can begin teaching a proper understanding of mental illness.  

To teach open mindedness, you must display empathy, situational examples, and cold, 
hard facts. Empathy is not always a trait people have for different people than themselves. To 
evoke empathy in them, you can find similarities between them and the group of people. The use 
of situational examples also helps evoke empathy. With a situation someone can picture in their 
head, he or she will be more willing to then visualize any other reasons or examples you would 
like to give. The most effective way to encourage people to listen to your point of view is with 
facts and statistics. Find some statistics that support your claim and see how people react. If 
someone dismisses your facts as fiction, then maybe it’s time to move onto the next person. 

The second step for treating mental illness is to educate our population. Many people are 
unsure of what a mental illness really is. Often it is thought to be someone who is “insane” or 
“crazy” instead of the person that has trouble in social situations, the person who has trouble with 
food, or the person who has a hard time balancing their emotions. Websites, articles, videos, 
movies, books, and documentaries are excellent platforms to educate adults and children about 
mental health. In schools, a mental health education like those for sexual and drug education 
could be taught concurrently. Annually, my 
highschool has a motivational speaker appear in an 
assembly. Motivational speakers are a great way to 
motivate and encourage positivity in students’ lives. 
Motivational speakers are a little costly, ranging from 
$1,000-5,000 for an excellent speaker, but many will 
perform for free or for less than $1,000. If we begin 
by educating our children into developing into 
understanding and accepting individuals, then the 
 
 

final step of this three-step process will be much easier.  

The third step for treating mental illness is to implement proper treatment and minimize 
stigma as a result. Up until the 16th century, those with mental illnesses were treated like animals. 
They were sent to asylums and put into terrible conditions. They were chained to walls, gyrated, 
subjected to blood-letting, and strapped to tranquilizer chairs. In the end of the 1800s, a school 
teacher named Dorothea Dix became infuriated with the standards for mental illness treatment 
and advocated for humane practices and treatment. She assisted in the establishment of over 30 
mental hospitals that have proper living conditions and medical practices. This then led to 
movement fighting for mental health awareness and improved the wellbeing of those affected by 
mental illness (Ferraras 10). With Dix’s help for mental health awareness, she advocated and 
educated those around her about mental health. With advancements in treatment and 
understanding, mental illness will be a manageable problem treated with humane processes and 
for the benefit of the ill. Many treatment plans include prescribed medication. Medication is 
almost always covered by insurance and feature a small co-pay. It is an effective and beneficial 
treatment for those with mental illnesses.  

With science making new advancement everyday, our abilities to understand mental 
health are also improving. In an article by The National Institute of Mental Health, ​Looking at my 
Genes: What can They Tell me About my Mental Health?, ​NIMH details what we can do as a 
population to help those with mental illness and how to make sure we are properly caring for and 
are aware of our mental health. As mentioned earlier, our genetics can give a glimpse into our 
mental health status and probabilities of developing a mental illness. It is recommended that you 
keep a record of your immediate family members’ mental health, as they can predict if you will 
develop the same illness. Another step of precaution are genome scans and genetic testing. The 
more people that participate, the more accurate the results will be., What these tests do, is they 
predict your probability of a mental illness through a DNA sample. The DNA sample is analyzed 
like the common 23andMe ™ and is returned to you with a series of different conclusions and 
probabilities. You can order them online, or you can go to a clinic and participate in one of their 
trials they offer to further their 
research. There are many 
around the country, but the 
most popular ones are on the 
East Coast.  

While this is not an 

immediate solution, over time 
this method will offer a worthy 
solution to treating and helping 
those with mental illness. Since 
 
 

the method is only three steps, and the steps are easy to understand, it is highly likely that this 
method of treatment will be sustainable and helpful for years to come.  

CONCLUSION  

The cost of living with a mental illness is not a concern of money, it’s a concern for quality 
of life. Mental illness confines people to their homes and minds, and it leaves them feeling weak 
and unable to get better. With awareness and help for those who need it, mental illness will be 
treated to all people who need it. With open mindedness from bystanders, education in schools 
and in media, and resources for people to use to find a treatment plan that works, mental illness 
will be a problem from the past. Will this sounds easy and nice, it will take a lot of work and 
dedication. However, if everyone participates in the help, be it showing acceptance or 
volunteering to answer phones for a suicide hotline, every contribution helps. Once acceptance 
is implemented into our society, it is unimaginable what other good could come from this for 
acceptance of other minorities like LGBT and what our new-and-improved world will look like, but 
it sure looks great.  
 

 
 
 

WORKS CITED 

Buser, Steven, and Leonard Cruz. ​DSM-5 Insanely Simplified: Unlocking the Spectrums within 

DSM-5 & ICD 10.​ Chiron Publications, 2015. 

Corrigan, Patrick W, and Amy C Watson. “Understanding the Impact of Stigma on People with  

Mental Illness.” ​World Psychiatry : Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association  

(WPA)​, Masson Italy, Feb. 2002, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1489832/. 

Dwyer, Christopher. “How to Change People's Minds.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 6 

Apr. 2018, 
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/thoughts-thinking/201804/how-change-people-s-min
ds. 

Ferreras, Ingrid G. “History of Mental Illness.” ​Noba,​ 2019,  

nobaproject.com/modules/history-of-mental-illness. 

“Looking at My Genes: What Can They Tell Me About My Mental Health?” ​National Institute of  

Mental Health​, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,  

www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/looking-at-my-genes/index.shtml. 

Mcleod, Saul. “Nature vs. Nurture in Psychology.” ​Nature Nurture in Psychology | Simply  

Psychology,​ Simply Psychology, 20 Dec. 2018, 

www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html. 

Talks, TEDx, director. ​Mental Disorders as Brain Disorders: Thomas Insel at TEDxCaltech​.  

YouTube​, YouTube, 8 Feb. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4m65sbqbhY.