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| Types of Mental Illness |
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| It is a disease characterised by loss of perceptions of realities of life, may or may not be associated with brain dysfunctioning or nervous disorders. The psychic patients are generally not aware of their disease and usually refuse to undergo treatment - as they invariably perceive that they are normally behaved and others are mentally ill. |
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| Psychic diseases are many. Two important psychic diseases are |
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| Schizophrenia |
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| It is characterised by hallucinations, imaginary talks, imaginary contacts, imaginary pleasure as well as withdrawal from real world. Thus, they fail to be part of natural society with their withdrawal. They tend to live in their imaginary world - where in they have deep hallucinations, imaginary perceptions. Schizophrenia can be of different types and differing proportions. In its worst form it may lead to uncontrollable violence, murder, suicide, or highly unconventional and unacceptable social behaviours. |
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| Affective psychosis |
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| It is characterised by severe depression leading a person to undergo deep loneliness with total withdrawal from surrounding people, surrounding environment. Usually such patients have great mental stress and they exhibit most impulsive behaviour - often leading to illogical and inconsistent actions / talks. |
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| Relatively, neurosis is a milder form of mental illness - characterised by prolonged emotional reactions like anxiety, fear, worries, tensions and pain. Such reactions are rooted in sub - conscious mind and are caused by some impactful event, strong feeling or particular person. An important character of neurosis is cause and effect relationship. The cause may be negligible / trivial event or object or feeling - which a normal person can easily neglect. But, the effect of such cause may be exhibited in a completely unconnected mental / physical expressions. |
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| It is characterised by repeated unconsciousness for short periods often combined with convulsions of limbs caused by excessive activation of neurons in the brain. The patients usually fall down with excess salivation causing foam in mouth. The causes of epilepsy can be - brain injury during birth, head injuries, brain tumours, cerebral infections (meningitis or encephalitis) or cerebro- vascular disorders. |
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| India has 8 - 9 million epilepsy cases. The treatment of epilepsy needs neurological treatment than psychiatric - treatment. In most cases, the disease is easily manageable - if not curable. The first experience of epileptic disorder is normally seen at adolescent stage of the patient. |
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| Most mental diseases are associated with social stigma either in mild or in severe forms. These stigma may be in the forms such as |
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 misconception by normal healthy people about mental diseases and mental patients (For e.g., normal people think that mental diseases are not curable) |
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 misconception that any form of mental disorder (even a mild form of neurosis) can make a person mad. Normal people ascribe mad person with uncontrolled, violent behaviour. |
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 A treated mental patient is perceived by society as mentally unsound person - even though he / she is as normal as others in society. |
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 A person known to have mental illness will not be allowed by the society to have a normal social relationship with others. |
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 A mentally ill person will be forced by his / her family members to be almost disrupted from family ties. |
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