By Nancy King


Nobody enjoys being sick or staying with a sick person who is having a lot of special attention and needs. However, when sickness appears, you should be human enough to take care of your patient and be able to help them through the recovery stage. Whether physical or mental illness, all are illnesses and should be treated the same. However, there is commonness where people with a mental health condition are mistreated following some misconceptions adapted by many today. A Princeton psychiatrist identifies six dispensable misconceptions about psychiatric patients and illnesses.

The first misconception is that psychiatric illness is more complex and special than the physical illness. This is never the case as following the definition of health from the WHO; illness can be manifested in many ways. Therefore, one can be sick physically and have the symptoms of headaches or fever, and another can be sick psychologically and have illogical behavior symptoms.

Secondly, people have a myth that patients suffering mental ailments are very dangerous. This is very untrue as they are never violent neither dangerous. There are maybe one or two cases in a thousand where some people are aggressive once faced with the psychiatric illness. In fact, there are sober or well people who are exceedingly violent than mentally sick patients.

People with a mental health condition have a high chance of getting well even if they have visited the market place. This is a myth that upon visiting the market, the patient experiences a permanent mental deformity. The fact remains that the patient will get well after some time as it has been tested and found true. There are so many patients who gained their well-being even after being collected from the market.

Mental illness emanates from one being cursed or being punished because of the past actions, deeds and sins are myths with no place in the twenty first century. The same factors that bring about physical illnesses are the same that continue towards the mental illnesses experienced today. Therefore, you should never point a mentally sick person as cursed or experiencing the punishment of their sins.

Also, people tend to conclude that psychiatric diseases are terminal. This has never been the case, and people should comprehend that delay has never been or will never be denial. Healing may take a lot of time, but that does not mean that the patient will never get well. Like diseases like tuberculosis, the patient will take long to heal but shall eventually gain wellness.

Conclusively, people tend to believe that psychiatric disease is highly infectious. As a result, they stay away from the affected parties with the idea of becoming sick too. The truth of the matter is that the disease is never contagious. Touching the bodily fluids of the patients or being close to them does not lead to your infection. Therefore, you should be more than willing to help the sick person to overcome their predicament.

There is nothing more imperative than alleviating the plight of an affected person. Whether a spouse, a child, a parent kin and kith, you should make sure to be close and there for them. Therefore, understanding all the above misconceptions is very important. All you have to do is understand and help others overcome them and join hands to help the psychiatric patient.




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