PHILIPPINES - "A MENTAL illness is just like any other illness," said Dr. Laureen Conanan, chief of Southern Philippines Medical Center's Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Medicine (SPMC-IPBM), and that mental illness can also take various forms just like the physical illness. Like physical illness, too, it can be cured.
"Most people misunderstand mental illness. Some even make jokes about people being crazy even if we know we shouldn't make fun of them. It should not be feared also. There is no fear only if we learn more and understand about them," Conanan said.
Conanan defines the mental illness as a psychological state of a person who has emotional or behavioral problems; a serious health condition enough to require psychiatric intervention. Just like other diseases, mental illness is severe in some cases and mild in others, she added.
Based on the "Mental Health Care Delivery: Linking the hospital to the community," offered by Conanan, the common types of mental illness are depression; anxiety; alcohol & drugs; schizophrenia; retardation; dementia; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); autism; and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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Category(s):Mental Health in Asia
Source material from Sun Star
