Working Alongside Someone with a Mental Illness

Working Alongside Someone with a Mental Illness

The following essay is dedicated to working alongside persons with mental disorders. The paper covers mainly bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. According to statistics, 25% of people with schizophrenia are employed and, thus, functional in the workplace. However, things cannot be simple when a mental disorder is on the horizon. One of the most important statements to keep in mind, is that people with mental disorders can be helped, and do get better, and that under good circumstances, they can lead full, healthy and productive lives. Thus, it remains important to give each other chances, whether one has any illness or not.

From a particular viewpoint, it may seem that schizophrenia has no cure. Interestingly, compared to some other mental disorders diagnosed in the DSM, its prognosis may appear somewhat more fatalistic. Also, schizophrenia can be very hard for loved ones, as it is not a question of trying harder, of doing or abstaining from doing certain things, it is a question that schizophrenia is an illness. Yes, it can be controlled, yes medications help individuals, yes individuals can and do get better when treated by psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, but people with schizophrenia do need and deserve help. And things need not be hopeless, there is always hope!

A girl with a mental illness. Image by Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Schizophrenia, the word itself, means a splitting of the mind. The disease does entail a significant cut off from reality as most people perceive it. People with the illness may appear trapped into their own reality, which is not only difficult to understand to friends and family, but also quite often slightly painful. Schizophrenia’s symptoms include but are not limited to, positive and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms are given the name because they represent things that are there but should not be, such as delusions (false beliefs held despite all evidence to the contrary) and hallucinations (visual and auditory sensory perception in the absence of actual stimuli). Negative symptoms correspond to things lacking, which should be present, such as flat affect (absence of displayed emotions) and social withdrawal (poor social functioning).

By the same toke, Bipolar Disorder is a very debilitating illness. Also, the medication may make you gain weight because you continuously eat. Nevertheless, it is better to stay on the medication to have a normal, healthy and productive life, than worry about weight gain or weight loss. Life has many challenges, mental illness is one of them for some of us. Psychology students in undergraduate and other programs are often faced with mental illness in textbooks. The branch of psychology dealing with mental disorders is abnormal psychology. The diagnostic tool most widely used is the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual published by the APA, the American Psychiatric Association.