Challenges of Living With Mental Illness: Facing Obscurity

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Living with mental illness comprises numerous challenges that individuals have to face and handle. It’s never an easy path to undertake, especially with the grind of daily life accompanied by pressure from society. These challenges add up to the burden of life’s complexities among individuals living with mental illness.

Life already constitutes various adversities and setbacks, and the challenges that come with mental health issues make life even harder and more complicated to maneuver.

That said, the disturbances of these challenges can disrupt the ability of an individual with mental illness to successfully cope with life’s demands and routines and overall interfere with their ability to live a normal life. Essentially, it’s emotionally and physically draining for everyone at this point. This blurs out the path of many people toward a fulfilling and happy life. That is why it is important to identify these challenges and dissect each to address the underlying problems and, perhaps, create solutions for them.

Finally, let’s delve into the challenges of living with mental illness.

What Are the Challenges of Living With Mental Illness

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Fewer Opportunities

Fewer opportunities are a problem for people with mental illness, particularly concerning work, school, or social activities or trouble finding housing. According to the National Library of Medicine, individuals with mental illness have particularly low employment rates. This study indicates how they are often treated differently because of their condition. That said, people with mental illness constantly struggle with prejudice and discrimination.

Lack of Access to Health Insurance

It is quite a problem how mental health care is expensive and can be inaccessible at times. Given this, patients are left with no choice but to bear the entire cost of the services, which ultimately makes them unattainable for many. Additionally, health insurance doesn’t adequately cover mental illness treatment, and they are often faced with restrictions and limitations with access to health care.

Mental Health Stigma

Another primary challenge of living with mental illness is the stigma that circulates it. Mental health stigma is known to be pervasive, usually stemming from stereotypes. Ultimately, this is caused by the lack of education, awareness, and a bubbling fear that can all instigate increased stigma.

According to the Mental Health Foundation, almost nine out of ten individuals with mental health problems consider stigma to be very impactful on their lives. They state how this impact has significant adverse effects, making it hard for them to recover. Thus, stigma also makes their symptoms far worse and discourages them from seeking help.

Maintaining Positive Habits

One of the challenges of mental illness is functioning well in daily life. This involves maintaining good and positive routines and habits such as cooking breakfast, doing the chores, working out, watering the plants, etc. Partaking in everyday activities seems more complicated than usual for people struggling with their mental health.

Reaching Out/Connecting With People

Social interaction is also a massive challenge many mentally ill individuals face. Dealing with new people may evoke feelings of fear and anxiety, which makes it a struggle for many to connect. Connecting with people also prompts the fear and inability to live up to expectations. Ultimately, interacting with people becomes intimidating and overwhelming as well. Given this pressuring undertaking for people with mental illness, reaching out can also become problematic for them.

Unexpected Attacks of Symptoms

Undeniably, the biggest challenge of living with mental illness is handling the symptoms. The challenge extends further when the symptoms attack unexpectedly. Knowing your stressors and triggers is a crucial solution that will be of great help and assistance. This approach allows one to combat the disturbances and prepare for the strike.

Identifying Moods and Feelings

People with mental illness constantly struggle with the dilemma of identifying if what they’re feeling is related to their illness and symptoms or just a part of navigating life. Understanding oneself and one’s mental illness can be challenging but not far-fetched.

Unfold the Mystery Behind the Asylum Scandals

Asylum Scandals by Patricia Lubeck is a book that covers a story of abuse, torture, corruption, and murder. It showcases some of the many challenges of people living with mental illness. Providing the history of Minnesota’s two oldest state hospitals in 1866 and 1879, it provides a glimpse into how many of them endured long confinements in straitjackets, hydrotherapy sprays, electric shock treatments, lobotomies, and other tortuous procedures.

This insightful and compelling book illuminates the wretched realities behind the brick walls of the insane asylums, especially with their horrific history. However, there are many more secrets and mysteries that are yet to be unveiled.

Dive into an enigmatic venture with Patricia Lubeck’s Asylum Scandals by obtaining your own copy today. You may click here to make your purchase through the author’s website. You can also order on Amazon.

While you’re at it, you may also read another related article about how mental health matters.