Question

Discussion post #9

What are common misconceptions about mental illness?

What social factors influence mental illness?

What are the worldwide mental health demographics?

What are the following theoretical perspectives on mental illness: the medical model; the

psychosocial model; and the labeling model?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of the theoretical perspectives on mental

illness?

Minimum word count, 250.

Answer 1

Most common misconceptions of mental illness:

• “They are curse by deity”- In almost every culture there’s a tendency to explain things that we have little knowledge about, is explaining it by saying it to be God’s wish. Similarly, when there’s little or no knowledge regarding the symptomatic manifestations of a disorder, there’s a high possibility of stating it a curse.
• “The person is faking, there’s no problem”- Even the educated people might have this tendency to reject or ignore the signs and symptoms of mental illnesses by saying that the person is actually having no problem at all. S/he is making up such things or acting abnormally to get attention or avoid taking responsibility for work.
• “No one in the family of a person with mental illness will ever be born normal”- If a person in a family is having psychiatric problems, others might feel that his/her offspring would never be born “normal”.
• Psychiatric illnesses are contagious and can be spread if others mingle with people with such illnesses.

Social factors that influence mental illness:

• The taboo and stigma regarding mental illness actually make it difficult for the person with mental illness to seek help. She finds it difficult to disclose their problems even with family members as they might not accept their mental health status. Also, they might be labeled in society.
• The high expectation of the family and others from a person also at time induces several kinds of anxiety in a person, which in turn may induce mental illnesses.
• At times, mental illness can stem from gender biases expectations. For e.g., the males are expected to be tough and take all of the financial responsibilities of the household. Failure to do so creates a lot of negative outcomes, which in turn influences the psychological wellbeing of a person.
• Race, ethnicity and other social factors also may play a role in mental illness.

Please consider the following table for world mental illness data by Hannah Ritchie and Max Rose (April 2018):

Disorder	Share of the global population with the disorder (2017) [difference across countries]	Number of people with the disorder (2017)	Share of males: females with the disorder (2017)
Any mental or substance use disorder	13% [11-18%]	970 million	12.6% of males 13.3% of females
Depression	3.4% [2-6%]	264 million	2.7% of males 4.1% of females
Anxiety disorders	3.8% [2.5-7%]	284 million	2.8% of males 4.7% of females
Bipolar disorder	0.6% [0.3-1.2%]	46 million	0.55% of males 0.65% of females
Eating disorders (clinical anorexia & bulimia)	0.2% [0.1-1%]	16 million	0.13% of males 0.29% of females
Schizophrenia	0.3% [0.2-0.4%]	20 million	0.26% of males 0.25% of females
Alcohol use disorder	1.4% [0.5-5%]	107 million	2% of males 0.8% of females
Drug use disorder (excluding alcohol)	0.9% [0.4-3.5%]	71 million	1.3% of males 0.6% of females

Medical Model:

The medical model of psychiatric illness refers to the biological aspects of any mental health problems. For e.g. depression is seen as lack of serotonin in the system. This model ignores the psychological variables and only focuses on chemical imbalances or brain pathology as the primary cause of any psychiatric morbidity.

The Psychosocial model of mental illness refers to that model in which psychiatric illnesses are conceptualized to be manifested due to interaction of both psychological and social factors. In this model, it’s assumed that psychological well being is influenced by one’s own beliefs and societal interaction. The difference in individual well being depends on the interaction between psychological and social factors.

The labeling theory assumes that mental health is largely affected by the social stigma towards mental illness. Labeling one person with any psychiatric illness can result in loss of self-worth, socio-economic status, discrimination, and increased symptoms (Markowitz, 2014). The internalized stigma can affect the mental health of an individual and thus might induce psychiatric problems.