Mental illness

A picture by Armand Gautier, showing people commonly diagnosed mental illnesses in the 19th century, in the gardens of the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital: dementia, megalomania, acute mania, melancholia, idiocy,hallucination, erotic mania and paralysis.

A mental illness is an illness of the mind. People with a mental illness may behave in strange ways, or have strange thoughts, in their view or the view of others. Mental illnesses develop during the life of a person. This may be linked to genes and experience. What is considered as a mental illness has changed over time. What is considered to be a mental illness may not be one in a different culture.

People with a mental illness sometimes have problems dealing with other people, or leading what is called a normal life. Treatment and certain medications can help people with certain mental illnesses lead a better life.

Mental illnesses are common

The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in the US said that major mental illnesses, including major depression, body dysmorphic disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder are the most common disability.

According to National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in the US, twenty-three percent of North American adults will have a mental illness in a given year. But less than half of them will be bad enough to disrupt their normal activities.

Treatment of mental illnesses

Mental illnesses can be treated by:

• medication
• psychotherapy

And all human rights of persons with mental illness are protected by:

• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Other websites

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Mental illness

• National Alliance for the Mentally Ill