Preview

What Is Normal

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
542 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is Normal
I would not go as far as to say that everyone has a mental illness. However, I would feel comfortable saying most people experience a mental illness at some point in their life. I don’t think the word “normal” really even has a meaning. My normal is different than someone else’s normal and the two different types of normal should not be compared. As I said before I do not think everyone in the world has a mental illness, but I do think nearly everyone does have a mental illness as some point in their life. With that being said, who is to say normal isn’t having a mental illness versus not having one. If more people do than don’t, wouldn’t it make more sense to say the majority is normal? I think it really depends on what someone’s definition of normal is, but in my opinion, no, nobody is really “normal. Mental health is a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being. Mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions — disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior. Mental health overall how someone is doing whereas a mental illness would in a sense mean someone has poor mental health. There is a huge variety of …show more content…
I think it is important to make the clear distinction between mental health and mental illness. They are two completely different things despite the confusion that many people have about their definitions. I think many people hear mental health and assume that is a bad thing when really it is rather neutral. Mental illness is also look at as a bad thing when it really isn’t that bad. I mean of course it isn’t necessarily good, like having a cold. However, it is not as bad as many people make it out to be. I think there is a sense of fear that people have when metal illnesses are involved. Many do not have a clear understanding, or even much understanding at all, which can make the whole thing scary. More people need to become aware of what mental illnesses are and how they can be

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Pys-270 Dq 1&2 Wk1

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I feel no one is “normal” but there are people who are worst then others. I think our culture has enough psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors that if something are off on a person that they can get in to talk to someone to see if they are abnormal. I feel that everyone has some sort of disorder. I have…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One definition of Abnormality is deviation of Social Norms. Social norms are accepted ways of behaving within a society. They are the unwritten rules that members of a society regard as being normal and acceptable, and any deviation from them can be regarded as abnormal behaviour. Examples include ways of dressing, such as women wearing feminine clothing and men wearing masculine clothing, not appearing naked in public, saying 'please' and 'thank you', opening doors for women and elderly people etc. Social norms may, however, vary between cultures - clothing is an example of this as some African tribes wear very little clothing whereas Western cultures keep certain areas of the body covered at all times. The problem with defining abnormality as deviation from social norms is that probably the majority of behaviour that deviates from social norms is unlikely to represent mental illness. Eccentric behaviours, for example the case of John Slater (Weekes & James, 1995) who lived in a cave that was often flooded by seawater because the open space helped him think more clearly, are not necessarily abnormal to the extent that health is harmed.…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are unwritten social rules that we have to stick to, these rules care culturally relative this means that they change from society to society. What may be considered 'normal' in one culture may not in another. These rules are also era dependant this means that they can also change over time for example in the early 20th century being homosexual may have been considered to be 'abnormal' but now society accepts different sexualities. Because of this we need to continually review the definition of 'normal' and 'abnormal' mental health. Behaviours that could be classified as deviating from social norms could be issues such as: depression, abnormal eating patterns, low moods, compulsions, anxiety, depression, paranoid, PTSD, mood disorders, delusions. All of these behaviours require intervention and treatment as soon as possible after the symptoms are spotted.…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One of the Healthy People 2020 goals is to understand mental health and mental disorders. The Dallas Morning News had an article title “ Words matter when fighting the stigma of mental illness” . This is an opportunity for mental health promotion. In the article the author argues for the need to demystified metal illness and to use language that is more respectful. As the author suggest it is important to educate the media and the people about mental illness, encourage them to use more hopeful language and get rid of the belief that mental illness is not treatable.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mental Health can be described as a person’s sense of psychological wellbeing. It is the capacity to live in a resourceful and fulfilling manner, and having the resilience to deal with the challenges and obstacles life presents. (What is mental health?, 2006) A mental illness or problem is a health problem that significantly affects the way a person behaves, thinks and feels. Mental illnesses are of many different types and severity. Some of the major types are: anxiety, depression, eating disorders, bipolar mood disorder, schizophrenia, and personality disorders. Some of the causes, or risk factors, of…

    • 2302 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mental health consumers are 1 in 5 in the United States. They face the same daily obstacles that everyone else faces. However, they face obstacles with a mental illness. The general population has all kinds of beliefs that are not true about mental health consumers. They seem to be afraid of them and base their treatment of them on that fear. Mental health consumers are not dangerous, for the most part, they want to be better, and be productive. When someone we know gets cancer, we rally around them to help. When someone we know becomes mentally ill, we tend to stay away like it’s contagious. Consumers have to fight twice as hard, to get their needs met, than non consumers. The general public seems to have the idea that the consumer somehow caused their own illness.…

    • 863 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mental health has always been looked upon as a tragic illness that affects the person who has it, but at the same time can affect the people surrounding, and the society. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and OCD are all examples of mental illnesses that have brought a lot of pain to individuals and their families. From time to time, in events such as mass murders in which the person who is responsible was diagnosed with a mental illness, the media tends to make it sounds as if mental health should be a public social problem, when in reality it is more of a private and personal issue. Unfortunately, those kinds of illnesses prevent the person who has it from living a normal life and from being themselves,…

    • 1115 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    society today, often showing those with a mental illness as the “bad guy”, these concerns expressed in…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are several forms of illnesses and they come in many forms, both physically and psychologically. There are some that may think that a mental illness isn’t an illness at all because it’s not visible to the naked eye, although, I believe that it is indeed a terminal illness that is more common than one may think. A mental illness is a variation of uncontrollable behaviors where the individual cannot differentiate fantasy with reality in terms then affects their overall thought mentality. It comes in various forms and it depends on one’s perspective on whether one is deemed mentally unstable.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are three definitions of abnormality; the first is deviation from social norms. A person will be diagnosed with this when they have deviated from the unwritten rules and standards of society making them seem abnormal. Jahoda identified this abnormality and said there were 6 conditions associated with good mental health. A positive attitude, Self-actualisation, Resistance to stress, Personal autonomy, accurate perception of reality, and Adaption to the environment. However there are limitations to this definition; the first is that the ‘social norm’ changes all the time. As recently as 1974 homosexuality was seen as a mental disorder as well as being a single parent. Therefore who’s to say what the norm is? Another limitation is that social norms vary between cultures. For example in Cuba its normal to speak to the dead once they pass, this is also backed up by a Canadian tribe who undergo a stage called witiko where they say they’re possessed by a monster and actions such as cannibalism and starvation can occur. This proves that what is normal depends on cultures around the world, it can’t be generalised. The last limitation is that who says that the social norm is good? Rosa parks stood up against the norm for the right of racism and now everyone follows.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A major problem that needs to solved is the stigmatization of mental illness and related treatments for mental illness. This problem needs to be solved faster than ever because the number of people diagnosed with mental illnesses such as depression is growing but the way mental illnesses are portrayed is not changing. We need to work towards bettering this mental health system for future generations because the way it has been functioning is not working.…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Societies have been dealing with social issues throughout history. Whether it has been social class, civil rights, tradition, or religious conflict, societies have been trying to either over come the issues or change them all together. One social issue, in particular, that societies of been trying to deal with is people having some sort of mental illness. Historians, researchers, and psychiatrists, such as Karl Menninger, can date cases of mental illness in India from when “the Children of Israel were still in Egypt and the Greeks [were] three hundred years away from their Trojan exploit” and after a millennium, a case of witchcraft emerged in 1489 (16). Often times people see mental illness as something horrible or as some sort of embarrassment to have to encounter, but little do they know that sometimes it is society itself that causes some cases of mental illness. Societies need to learn the history of mental illness, how it has been treated throughout history, and how they should actually be treating people with mental illnesses.…

    • 1776 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mental illness is not a topic to be taken lightly or to turn a blind eye. We should not judge others based on issues, but on their strength of facing their demons…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How do you perceive people with mental illnesses? Did you know that in a 1996 survey, 12.1 percent of Americans identified people with mental illnesses as “violent, dangerous, frightening.” John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men illustrates the real-life issue of people with mental illnesses and disabilities and how people around the world fear these people and won't offer them available treatments, because of those acts they aren't treated equally or with respect. Due to a survey that was taken in 1996 by Indiana University and Columbia University, 12.1 percent of Americans who were surveyed recognized people with disorders as “violent, dangerous, frightening.”…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    My Definition Of Normal

    • 1658 Words
    • 4 Pages

    What is considered normal? Everyone today yearns to be considered normal, but what exactly are they striving for? Found in the dictionary, the definition of normal is: an adjective; usual; conforming to the usual standard, type, or custom. But, how can anything be considered normal if no two people are exactly the same? Norms form a society. They are the standards by which people live by. Growing up in Rhode Island, my experience has been with the American contemporary society. Our society has to put labels on everything and everyone in order to function. There are different norms for the way we look and act. Our society has set an extremely high standard of normality with appearance. People believe that the norm for appearance, speaking from a woman's point of view, in our society is being six feet tall, 115lbs. This is perceived through the media and the television. Because we see it on TV, we think that it must be the norm. Honestly, how many people really look like that? Also, there is a certain norm for the way we act. Acting randomly is not considered a norm of our society. Americans are supposed to fit in with their peers, having the normal life. Well, who ever said that everyone has to drink and like to party in order to be considered normal.…

    • 1658 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays