Assignment 2: Course Project Part I: Interview and Background ResearchRefer to the Course Project Overview. Early in the course, you selected a specific disorder. Research it using your textbook and A

Mental Disorders

Erica K. Fernandez

Argosy University

Challenges in Identifying Mental Disorders

Introduction

Various problems arise when in the process of identifying a mental disorder. It becomes difficult to determine accurately that a person suffers from a mental disorder or not. One of the greatest reasons is that the aspect of being mentally ill differs from one scenario to another. What people consider to be a sign of mental disorder could be taken differently in another setup. Therefore, the location, social aspects, and other factors differ, thus making it difficult to make the final accurate decision. Other factors that make it difficult to identify mental disorders include the many indicators, the stigma associated with the condition, as well as the need for objectivity (Sue et al, 2015). There are various principles that could be used to identify such conditions effectively, and thus offer assistance to the affected people.

Social norms present some challenges in the identification of people with mental disorder. People in different regions have different beliefs and ideologies. Therefore, one trait may be considered as being abnormal in one place and quite normal in another. There is, therefore, the lack of common ground in the different cultures that people profess. People will not know which of the cultures to believe in as there is no scientific proof of the condition.

The condition is also associated with so many factors. Mental disorder is not a specific condition. It has so many conditions that the patients are expected to show. It is not given that some of the signs indicate the disorder. One may indicate some signs such as strong feelings of anger, but at the same time do not suffer from the problem (Butcher, Mineka & Hooley 2017). In the end, there is a problem of determining to what extent one can be said to have the mental illness. There is no specific number of factors that are definite in the definition of mental disorder.

There is always the need to deal with the mental disorder in an objective manner. This means that one ought to not have an answer before he or she is clear about it. It is taken to be immoral and not right to have early conclusions that a person has a mental disorder. Due to the need to always remain objective, people take too long to think that one is suffering from a mental disorder. People only want to live by the hope that things are okay and will get better. None of the people wants to hope that another suffers from a mental disorder. The process takes too long to identify the condition.

Mental disorders attract some high levels of stigma in society. People tend to avoid cases in which they could directly get involved in such disorders ore even have the loved ones affected. Therefore, people disguise the existence of some of the mental disorders signs (Melton et al, 2017). Without the proper signs of the mental disorder, it becomes difficult to determine and conclude on a case. Such cases take too long to determine and get discovered when it is too late.

Conclusion

The inability to discover the mental disorder existence is a real problem in trying to offer support to the affected people. This has largely been contributed by the difference in cultural beliefs on what mental disorders are. In addition, multiple indicators, need for objectivity and the stigma associated with the disorders add to the problem. There is a need to curb the problem for once. This could be attained by approaching the identification process in a scientific manner. This way, it could be easier and more certain to conclude the existence of such mental disorders.

References

Butcher, J. N., Mineka, S., & Hooley, J. M. (2017). Abnormal psychology. Pearson Education India.

Melton, G. B., Petrila, J., Poythress, N. G., Slobogin, C., Otto, R. K., Mossman, D., & Condie, L. O. (2017). Psychological evaluations for the courts: A handbook for mental health professionals and lawyers. Guilford Publications.

Sue, D., Sue, D. W., Sue, S., & Sue, D. M. (2015). Understanding abnormal behavior. Cengage Learning.