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What Impacts Does Culture Influence Have On Mental Illness And Health.
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What impacts does culture influence have on mental illness and health?
Introduction
Usually, mental health is termed as a connotation of personal attributes, defined as a personal matter but, mental health is greatly affected by both surrounding factors and psychological aspects. However, the general understanding of attitude towards mental health varies with families, ethnic background, country, individual and then culture because all these aspect influence the beliefs about mental illness and mental health (Jones and Alun Charles, 10012). It is necessary to understand cultural associations and beliefs in order to understand the approaches to mental health and then formulate strategies to address mental illness. It would not be wrong to say that culture and its background plays a central role in casting an effect on the mental health and illness of an individual.
Discussion
Taking into account the impact of culture on mental health and mental illness, numerous studies have been conducted to address the validity of the assertion. According to a report, “Mental Health: Culture Race and Ethnicity: A supplement to Mental Health”, it is highlighted that there are a number of ways in which culture influences the diversity of mental experiences (Papadopoulos, et al. 1665-1685). Culture determines and directs vision toward the description of different symptoms that can either be physical or emotional. An example of this ideology can be of some African tribes who do not stigmatize mental illness, there are some tribes who stigmatize only a few mental illnesses while others stigmatize almost all mental illnesses. Cultural impact on mental illness can also be understood by exemplifying Asians for whom mental illness is a shame so they tend to share somatic symptoms first and afterward, they describe if there were any emotional afflictions (Papadopoulos, et al. 1665-1685). The most critical point is, emotional afflictions are answered when questioned or insisted by the physician. In the same way, culture also determines the amount of attention that is given to mental illness and mental health, taking into account the notion of treating mental illness as something that is either real or imaginary. Similarly, ideas highlighting the cause of mental illness are understood with the same approach and ideology that is entirely culture oriented. There are a lot of diseases that are assumed to be culturally driven such as suicide, depression, and post-traumatic attacks are termed as part of a culture of both America and Asia (Gurung and Regan AR, 451-466).
Taking into account the causative understanding of mental illness in culture, the suggestion and options of treatment are also driven by culture. In Asian countries, visiting a psychologist and some psychiatrist is considered shame or a negative idea that can distort societal reputation (Wang, et al. 364-377). Moreover, Asians are more towards avoiding upsetting thoughts in accordance with personal problems rather than expressing mental problems. In the same way, African culture is also found to treat mental illness as something that has nothing to do with this world. Africans try to, in fact, they do treat their mental problems and distress on their own. The notion of spirituality is also considerable. Many Asians and Africans believe that mental issues can be treated by some spiritual methodologies or association, so they try to get in touch with their spiritual guides and leaders (Wang, et al. 364-377). In contrast, Americans treat mental illness as casual as other diseases, for them, it is not a big deal. According to a study that was conducted in 2010, it was found that Americans prefer to visit psychologist or psychiatrist when they face any kind of metal issue because their culture does not associate it with shame (Wang, et al. 364-377).
The connection between mental health and illness and culture do not end here. There are several examples and notions of negative impact, associated with the influence of culture on mental health. In Africa, the awareness towards mental health is the product of ideas such as stigma, distrust of some medical progression and the role of religious beliefs. It is found that 63% of African Americans treat depression as a “personal weakness” while 30% people deal with it themselves and only 1/3 of the population is willing to get medications that can treat mental illness (Wang, et al. 364-377). The history of mistrust, discrimination, fear of mistreatment and racism is also one of the factors that is associated with the bridge between impact of culture and mental health because the survey from Commonwealth Fund Minority Health Survey have observed that 28% of Latinos, 43% of the African Americans and even 5% of whites have expressed that they were mistreated in some clinical setting just because of their background (Turner, et al. 905-911). All these aspects and features highlight a significant role of culture in perspective and attitude toward mental health.
Conclusion
Taking into account the observations and results from different researches, it can be concluded that culture plays a central role in formulating vision toward mental illness and health. Culture is not just a collection of norms and values that can guide human understanding of life standard but it also direct understanding towards healthcare. There are a lot of people who die of mental illness that is left untreated because of the lack of significance driven but culture towards mental health (Turner, et al. 905-911). the most pathetic notion is that of considering mental illness as a shame because people die because of mental illnesses. Both the ideas, mental illness, and mental health are understood in coordination with or even derived from culture when strategies are formulated to treat mental illness. Such stratigies are never fully productive but they can help to change the life of people who die a miserable death because of mental illness.
Work Cited
Gurung, Regan AR. "Cultural influences on health." Cross‐Cultural Psychology: Contemporary Themes and Perspectives (2019): 451-466.
Jones, Alun Charles. "Stigma and Shame: Conceptualisations and Views Concerning Service Use and Health Care Provision: A Literature Review and Commentary." Journal of Clinical and Medical Research. RD-CMR 10012 (2019).
Papadopoulos, Chris, et al. "Systematic review of the relationship between autism stigma and informal caregiver mental health." Journal of autism and developmental disorders 49.4 (2019): 1665-1685.
Turner, Natalie, Julia F. Hastings, and Harold W. Neighbors. "Mental health care treatment-seeking among African Americans and Caribbean Blacks: what is the role of religiosity/spirituality?." Aging & mental health 23.7 (2019): 905-911.
Wang, Cixin, et al. "Asian immigrant parents’ perception of barriers preventing adolescents from seeking school-based mental health services." School Mental Health 11.2 (2019): 364-377.
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