Essay Sample on Mental Health: Types & Causes of Mental Illness

Mental health is a state of well being of an individual whereby one can realize her ability, can handle normal stresses of life, contributes to the well being of the society and can be able to work fruitfully. There are various types of mental health. They include bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, and addiction, schizophrenia and panic, and anxiety disorders. These, among many, are factors that can affect one's mental health. Mental illness may be caused by various factors such as genetics, infections, prenatal damage, brain defects or injury, substance abuse, and other factors like poor nutrition.

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Mental illness can be a result of genetics in that mental illnesses run in the family, and members of the families may be at a high risk of acquiring the disease. It is passed from one member of the family to another through genes. It is believed that factors such as stress or abuse can trigger the illness in a person who is a member of a family with a history of mental illness. Brain defects contribute to mental illness in that certain parts of the brain, if injured, cause the disease. Infections also lead to the development of mental illness, and in some cases, it may also cause the worsening of its symptoms. Extended substance abuse as a factor causes anxiety and depression, which later on causes mental illness. Prenatal damage contributes to the development of mental illness through the loss of oxygen of the fetus during birth, for instance. Exposure to toxins, such as lead when eating, may also lead to the development of mental illness.

There are different signs of mental illness. They include long periods of sadness, very high and low moods, being socially withdrawn, dramatic changes in eating habits, and unnecessary fear or anxiety. Mental illness can be treated through the taking of antidepressants, mood-stabilizing medications, anti-anxiety medications, and taking of antipsychotic drugs. It is essential to understand the causes of symptoms and treatment of mental illness to understand entirely mental health.

Mental health is on the political front since it has become a priority for the government and the opposition. Most politicians are campaigning with one of their agendas being putting mental health on the frontline. It is evident that mental health affects many people in our society, and that is why politicians use this as a campaigning strategy. Mental health issues in our community include inadequate housing, poverty, unemployment, and discrimination. According to research by a world health organization, mental health issues have increased over the years and are still on the rise.

According to time news magazine published in 2018, politicians keep blaming mass shootings on mental health issues while doctors say they are wrong. President Donald Trump called for the crackdown of all violent video games, believing that they cause mental health issues to the teenagers who play who later cause violence. The comments by Trump were after two attacks that lead to the death of eighty people, whereby he argued that it might have been caused by the influence of violent video games that cause mental health issues that bring about such actions. "Mental illness and hatred pulled the trigger, not the gun," was how he explained the mass shootings.

Doctors across specialties do not share the same views as Trump and some of the politicians as they argue that mental illness is just being used as a scapegoat to explain the increased violence. They continue to say that even as the levels of depression and suicidal behaviors are growing in the united states, they are also increasing in other countries. Still, there are no cases of mass killings in those countries (Duchaime, 2019). Despite them having the 'violent video games' and examples of mental illness, they do not have high instances of violence, which means that the main issue is the need for better gun control. Studies also show that out of the very many cases of abuse, only a small percentage of people are diagnosed with mental illness. This clearly shows that politicians use mental illness as a scapegoat to cover their inefficiency in governing.

Due to the increased cases of suicides, especially among middle-aged persons, it is evident that there are mental issues in our communities. The death of a middle-aged person by suicide says a lot about the economic conditions of a country. The high chances are that suicide is a result of hard economic conditions such as unemployment. The politicians, therefore, use this as a way of campaigning with the promise of improving the economic conditions which as a result will lead to a decrease in suicides and other mental health issues since mental illness is a factor affecting people negatively in our societies, that becomes a perfect agenda which may lead to people voting for such politicians without the knowledge that it was just a tactic to be elected.

Some people blame politics for mental illness. Presidential elections can be very emotionally exhausting and can cause stress and fatigue. For instance, in the united states, presidential coverage lasts for about one year, which is a very long time for one to be stressed since news media sensationalize stories in most cases, especially political matters, which makes it hard for people to not keep on following. They keep on playing the same political clips over and over again in a day, which makes escaping election stories very hard. It because very difficult, especially when one preferred candidate is not on the winning party. This can even lead a person into depression and therefore causing mental illness. The best solution for these would be to make the election process shorter and for the media to be less sensitive about these matters.

There was also research was done that showed that political instability could cause mental health issues in children. Children who grow up in countries that are in a war, and those that are politically unstable are more likely to suffer from mental illnesses such as depression and trauma. The children will have a negative perspective and will not be at peace since they will always be worried. The best solution for children living under these conditions is to teach them coping mechanisms, social support and for them to have a strong connection in the family (Thabet, Tawahina, Sarraj, & Vostanis, 2007). Community attitudes toward mental health and healing may be a critical approach towards reducing mental health illness in our societies.

References

Duchaime, J. (2019). https://time.com. Retrieved 6 December 2019, from https://time.com/5644147/mass-shootings-mental-health/

Thabet, A., Abu Tawahina, A., El Sarraj, E., & Vostanis, P. (2007). Children exposed to political conflict: Implications for health policy. Harvard Health Policy Review, 8(2), 47-57.