Why is mental illness considered pts. fault?

Specialties Psychiatric

Published

I'm a student thinking of going into psych.nursing. I really am struck by how many of my fellow students think that mental illness is the pts. fault, that they just need to 'buck up', that they (the students) have no sympathy with folks w/mental illness, addictions...

Why is there this attitude towards mental illness as opposed to physical illness or even mental problems that may manifest as physical illness i.e. IBS - these people get sympathy because there is a physical expression instead of those who are more honestly 'mentally ill'. There are plenty of people who have physical illnesses that could be controlled with effort (borderline diabetes, high blood pressure) with exercise and diet yet those folks receive our sympathy (and medication) , why not mental illness?

Because we still attach the stigma of demonic possession to it, coupled with our Puritanical belief that one should just suck it up. It permeates the whole society.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

As a previous psych RN CNS, I can assure you that folks with genuine mental or emotional illnesses DO suffer. It is not their fault or sign of personal weakness. Their pain is palpable. It is even quantifiable. Yes, there may be some individuals who may evoke the cry of mental illness for their own personal gain...they are known as malingerers....but, that is a totally separate issue from folks that do genuinely have forms of mental or emotional illness. In my years as a clinician, and at one time, a counselor....I can assure you that "anyone" can be at risk to develop this type of illness...just like diabetes, cancer, heart disease. We all have a physical threshold....enough risk factors and enough stress, boom...a physical illness can appear. The body can only take so much and so much wear and tear. The same applies to psychiatric. Some folks have very high psychiatric thresholds and some have very low thresholds and many have thresholds in between. Any person, and I do mean ANY, has a threshold...and when reached and crossed...an illness results. The body and/or the mind can only take so much. It does not mean that the person is a weak person. It has to do with exhaustion of current resources and energies. A person who is depressed certainly didn't ask for it. A person with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia certainly didn't ask for it. It doesn't matter how big you are or how strong you are, you have a threshold. Cross it, you become ill. Folks who don't understand this or have any empathy for this will soon one day realize it for themselves.

I think mrs kc that you will be a wonderful and compassionate psych. nurse.Your title brought tears to my eyes. I don't know why the stigma is there but it is.

As someone who struggled with ADD comorbid with serious bouts of depression and anxiety, I can tell you that I struggled greatly with accepting my diagnosis and then using meds. What finally convinced me was what my doc said, "If you had high B/P you would take a pill" And I said something about the drug creating an artifical mood. His reply was the deal breaker: "So when you give your patient dopamine, that's an artifical B/P? I want the artifical B/P if I need dopamine. And insulin creates artifical blood sugars? " If the body can be out of balance, why not the brain and consequently the mind?

I have to say though I'm more understanding on paper than in practice. I have trouble translating that new head knowledge to heart and practice when faced with serious psych behaviors. Thank God for nurses and future nurses like you.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

Now, answering the question: why do folks believe it is a person's fault? Many folks may choose to believe that the affected person chose this for him/herself. "You made a choice or made choices...now it is your fault and you now deserve to suffer for those choices". This arguement is as lame as saying, well..."you didn't watch your cholesterol, you ate those hamburgers, you deserved your stroke, so what are you complaining about?...now suck it up and be strong about it." Some folks cannot help their cholesterol level for there is a genetic component to play in it as well. It doesn't really matter what they eat. This, blaming the victim, is a common thread in our current day culture. This stance is very puritanical, guilt and sin driven, and shaming. It accomplishes nothing to alleviate the problem or the suffering. Often, the behavior that follows is that "if one does not talk about it or look at it, it will just go away...it doesn't exist or it can't be all that bad as people make it out to be"....like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand. Ignorance, despite their thinking, is not bliss. It just keeps the suffering suffering longer. Many truly do not get it until they or a loved one becomes striken with a psychiatric illness...yet, even then, keeping one's head in the sand may still occur...out of pride or even out of their own personal shame for failing to admit it.

Education and dialog are the keys to further understanding....not silence.

You will do well, my friend. Continue maintaining an open mind (even when colleagues choose not to) and continue having that wonderful intellectual curiosity mixed with patient empathy. If you do, you will develop into an outstanding clinician.

Thanks for the answers. It seems like it makes it harder to recover from/deal with illness if 'it is your fault'.

mrs.c.k.

Yes the stigma exists, but people like you mrs c k will help to lessen this just by asking why

I read this thread last night and was thinking about it all day today. I have a family member (in-law) who I believe is mentally ill. She is suffering greatly, but absolutely REFUSES to admit that there is ANY problem and that she needs help. She will not go to a doctor. She does not want her parents to "know". (they do a good job of "ignoring" the situation) She has been this way for 20 years - no better, no worse. Pretty sad.

No one can force her at this point to get help, she is an adult. She refuses to talk about it. It does get very frustrating to sit there and watch her slow decline. Her problems become our problems, yet she refuses to address the core issue. I don't blame her for her sickness, but I do think she is responsible for some of her problems. I'm not sure if even that is her fault, though, since the illness makes it so difficult for her to take responsibility for herself. Perhaps if her parents were more accepting to the possibility of mental illness, there wouldn't be such a problem here.

I know that this isn't the situation that you are referring to in the OP. I can't imagine why anyone would think a psych patient brought the illness on themself. But seeing her again today, so very frustrating.....

Specializes in Geriatrics/Family Practice.

One person spoke of the threshold being pushed to the limit when an illness occurs, including mental illness, but then there is heredity. When someone is born to total dysfunction, they reach their threshold quicker, but if you add a parent with active alcholism, drug addiction or untreated mental illness themselves, you might as well kiss you "normal" psyche goodbye. I know because I suffer, my mother suffered, my grandmother suffered and now my son suffers. I say suffered with mother and grandmother because they both overdosed at 48 and 49 years of age and died. Because I know that this is hereditary I am on medication and my son has been on and off meds since he was 4 years old. If someone was to say that mental illness was my sons fault, I'd have to go alittle psycho on them. He didn't ask for it, I passed it onto him, so I guess it's my fault, and then I could blame my mom, and on and on. Mental illness is real and for those who do not think so, they need a reality check.

If someone was to say that mental illness was my sons fault, I'd have to go alittle psycho on them. He didn't ask for it, I passed it onto him, so I guess it's my fault, and then I could blame my mom, and on and on. Mental illness is real and for those who do not think so, they need a reality check.

In general, I think fault is a loaded word.

I admire you for taking proactive steps for your son.

Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.

Thank you for this thread and for the thoughtful responses.

When I finally became an RN at age 40, I had battled depression for years, including some hospitalizations and long term therapy. I was very open about my history at first, because I really thought that nurses above all others in society were educated about mental illness and would have some understanding and empathy. (as they would with diabetes or any other physical disease). I soon found how wrong I was. Nurses are no different than anyone else in society and at times are MUCH worse because of how difficult it is to deal with patient's with physical and emotional/mental issues in our system. It is very difficult to deal with the mental illnesses within the physical model of symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and cure. Mental illness does not work that way.

I still manage my depression and am more or less successful at it. It didn't happen overnight. I still am in therapy. I still miss work because of it. At times, I feel strong enough to share my struggle with a coworker, but for the most part it is a part of me that I keep hidden. The nursing environment is not safe for a person managing a mental illness.

Specializes in Onco, palliative care, PCU, HH, hospice.

I too as a nurse struggle with mental illness. I have Bipolar type II disorder that has been treatment resistant to the mainstream drugs used for this disorder. I have a total of three hospitiilizations in the past 3 years for severe suicidal ideation, my last hospitilization which I was by far in the worst depressed and suicidal state I've ever been in, I had to miss a work for about a week. Upon my return to work, my co-workers had found out about my hospitilzation and many of them instead of opening their arms they snubbed me. I was penalized for missing work, despite the fact I was in deed in the hospital and one nurse raised enough hell that I now have a "caseworker" following my case and reporting to my manager "how I'm doing". Keep in mind I have a NON-psychotic disorder, never been psychotic, have never had ANY complaints from patients or co-workers about my patient care or job performance and yet still I have to have a caseworker. Essentially I feel like I'm being punished for getting help, luckily for me I have found a med combo that works and am making wonderful progress, for the first time in many years I'm on the verge of being genuinely happy. It just angers me that some of the "professionals" I work with are so ignorant towards mental illness. if they knew the emotional torment and pain that I and so many others with mental illness have gone through and go through every day they would be thanking their lucky stars instead of thumbing their noses. To the OP, keep your positive attitude, you will excel in nursing especially in psych. Keep your chin up because you know what you believe is true, those of us with mental illness did not choose our affliction no more so than someone with leukemia. I just wish society would realize it.

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