Question

what was your earliest exposure to mental disordees, such as someone in your life, at school or in the media? how do you think this shaped your understanding of normal versus abnormal behavior? was it accurate or stigmatizing?

Answer 1

My earliest exposure to to mental disorders was through one of my classmate .She was very bright student of my class and everyone liked her.Me also everytime likes to talk and spent time with her.It was our upper primary school days ,I was just changed my lower primary school due to some reasons .That time I had a very few friends within my circle ,actually it was two .I like to make friendship with many one ,but unfortunately I was a new one to the class and everyone looked at me like a stranger.Those days my eyes were searching for a good friend and it stucked at a well mannerd as well bright student who is always having a smile on her face .After one year I noticed that she had poor performance in examinations .She stayed alone most of free hours.Play time she stayed in class itself .Whenever I tried to talk with her she skipped from me .Those days somebody told me that she had some bad experience from her close relative .That made her sad .During our high school days I noticed that she was on daydreaming most time .One day she ran around our school and cried loudly ,we all astonished and wondered about her behaviour ,But slowly I recognised that she is having some mental illness.That day onwards I closely observed her activities .One day during our free period I purposefully talked to her ,she cried a lot infront of me ,shared everything including her mental issues.This was my eairliest exposure to mental disorders.

This experience made me to think a lot about mental illness .Actually that time itself a strong ambition to work in this medical feild ,to become a counselor started.It helped me to distinguish between normal and abnormal behaviours .It helped me alot to understand the nomal from abnormal and all.

The presence of abnormal and deviant behaviour is perhaps the closest of the simple models to provide an understanding of abnormality as it relates to mental health problems ,because it implies a deviation from normal behaviour in some negative way .But as a single criterion is inadequate .Not all people with mental health problem engage in deviant behaviour,and not all deviant behaviours are a sign of mental health problem.

It was some extent stigmatizing .In the earliest times I had a little knowledge about these mental diseases.Many people looked it in a different mind .Many had a hesitation to deal with mental patients .If somebody diagnosed as a mental patient people looked at them in different way .Now the scenario changed a lot eventhough many had a belief that this patients should be treated differently.