Entering the conversation

Mariah Romero
When treating someone with a mental illness, especially in America it can be a very
delicate topic due to all the stigma against people with a mental illness. Millions of Americans
are affected by mental illnesses, 1 in 5 adults in America has a mental illness. The mental illness
that affects women more are borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders,
while in men they have PTSD, drug or alcohol problems. Due to the many stigmas, it has
affected how people view/treat others with mental illness because they are looked at as being
unstable, dangerous, violent. When in truth majority of the people are very stable and take
medication to treat their symptoms of their illness so that they can function normally.
Treatment for mental illnesses as greater improve in quality because there is more
combinations of medication and support like therapy so that not one treatment can be applying to
everyone with the same certain illness. Everyones treatment is different to fit their needs,
wellness goals and different types of support services. Doctors are more aware about treating
people with mental illness because they use to do unhuman treatments like shock therapy (not
supervise or approved, locking people up, holding people underwater, etc. But now doctors have
a better knowledge of the different illnesses to where patents are actually getting treated. Also
there are many more support groups are available to help with building social skills, get advice
from others that are dealing with the same type of issues.
In Pretty Little Liars they had multiple characters show signs of having mental illnesses
for example, bipolar disorder, multiple personality disorder. The main character that was the face
of the show of having a mental illness was Mona, who was went crazy at the end of season
two, showed having a personality disorder because she went from being a normal smart high

school girl to someone that was stalking and tormenting, also almost running over her so called
friends. When she was admitted into Radley the mental hospital, people looked at her as being a
crazy person and should not be released back into the public. Although she was a dangerous at
the time she was not being treated before her episode, so no one caught on to her symptoms and
got her help before she had her episode. Even in Radley Mona had barely any human contact and
was not really getting the proper treatment which is another problem in mental hospitals, since
generally it is low staff and the staff is not really trained to care those with certain mental
illnesses.
I personally feel that people with mental illnesses should be treated better because they
are still getting treated badly either its from their doctors/nurses or family or even friends. People
believe that they created people any kind of way just because they have a mental illness when in
fact most people can provide for themselves and also are very intelligence people. I also think
with better ways of catching the signs/symptoms then people can get a faster treatment and
hopefully have a happier and healthy life. With the great advances that have been made for
treatments of mental illness, they have been more tailor to not only the illness but also the patient
themselves. I believe that people now have a better support system that will set them up to
succeeded in the real world so that they make relationships, have a job, live on their own if their
illness allows for them too.
With more and more information coming out for better treatments that can really help
people in need and also we can figure the signs out when a people is still young instead of when
they are adults. Also educating the public more can help society become be sensitive and aware
of them making judgments and mistreating other with mental illnesses. I really believe that the
more advances we make as a country towards mental illness, the more we can work to hopefully

having more cues or more effective medications. I think also if more people took mental illnesses
more serious then they could get a better understanding of that person and have a lower chance
of mistreating/ using that person. Overall I believe we have made great improvements and if we
continue on the path we are on then we can excel in both the medical field for research or in
sociality view on mental illness.