During my childhood, psychiatry or the
need for a psychiatrist meant that a person's thinking pattern was
often considered to be mostly, not in touch with reality, maybe a
danger to themselves or another. Their ability to cope was weighted
on what seem to be a “normal” or “acceptable” reaction to
situations or thinking based on the community or populace they
reside. To acknowledge that someone in the family or one's self was
in need of psychiatric care, the family, person or persons were often
shunned by other family members, friends. It was challenging to be
accepted by others as having any aspect of their cognitive behavior
as having any normalcy.
The talk here is of those who were not
diagnosed as needing medication, but often found later to have
various levels of depression. Depression has always been a
forerunner for what seemed the normal route: psychiatric, sometimes,
assistance from a psychologist. Today, cognitive behavior therapy,
along with positive psychology is front and center with treating
conditions, once thought to be based in brain disorders, now, forms
of depression. Mental illness in America, according to a chart on
the homepage of- The National Alliance on Mental Illness, the impact
of mental illness is as follows:
Prevalence
of Mental Illness
- Approximately 1 in 5 adults in the U.S.—43.8 million, or 18.5%—experiences mental illness in a given year.1
- Approximately 1 in 25 adults in the U.S.—9.8 million, or 4.0%—experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.2
- Approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children aged 8–15, the estimate is 13%.3
- 1.1% of adults in the U.S. live with schizophrenia.4
- 2.6% of adults in the U.S. live with bipolar disorder.5
- 6.9% of adults in the U.S.—16 million—had at least one major depressive episode in the past year.6
- 18.1% of adults in the U.S. experienced an anxiety disorder such as post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and specific phobias.7
- Among the 20.2 million adults in the U.S. who experienced a substance use disorder, 50.5%—10.2 million adults—had a co-occurring mental illness.
The
millions of people listed above whose mental state is being
characterized as having mental illness, may or may not sound like a
lot to readers when comparing to the U.S. Population World-o-meter
stats that as of April 3, 2017, there are 325,9893,303 people living
in America. Yet, it certainly is not a short list of individuals
considered with mental illness. What has become interesting is how
mental illness is being treated without the use of drugs.
Positive
psychology is one of the scientific based forms of mental assistance,
I love, because it an applied approach to optimal functioning with
autonomy being front and fore-centered. It works on the premise of
not harping on what is going wrong in one's life and or trying to fix
it, but enhancing what is going right. The idea of positive
psychology rests in each one having a form of normalcy that is there
own, regardless of what appears to be thinking outside of the box.
The past decade scientist, educators and the population in general
have been focused on what makes life worth living in so many areas of
existence. It is a wonderful to understand that what is good in
life, does not mean that it cannot be problematic. Think of a 3 or 4
bedroom house you always wanted. You fully furnished it, it's in a
safe neighborhood, you are not finding any issues with keeping up
payments or you paid for it in full. You and your family are content
living in the space. Suddenly, there is an unexpected rainstorm,
unforeseen to cause flooding the area has never seen before and your
house gets effected.
Ok.
The incident may not make for the need for making use of the need of
a psychologist, but, it does lend to an example how wonders can come
with bummers. To harp on the bummer of a wonderful event, is what
positive psychology is not. In fact, a use of positive psychology
may even be to extend on discussion within one's head or among a
group effected of say the above example as, “Wow, we just had a
flood because of the storm we never expected could happen. Now we
know we must protect ourselves of any upcoming storms. Also, we
could have lost a lot more than the simple cleaning it up!”
Obviously, positive psychology is based in theories and studies.
The
short end of the impact of positive psychology is that it implies
being taught how to be happy can be based in thinking in positive
psychological ways, scientifically. It is an unconditional love or
caring that can be theorized to help one find comfort in things that
fall outside of what may be determined as normalcy, by society, a
person or even place, as not an end all to ultimate happiness.
Finally, those who have steered away from traditional psychology, now
have positive psychology they may find better suited to their needs
for assistance in wellness.
