WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT MENTAL PROBLEMS?
The early detection of a mental disturbance is very important. It is often close friends or acquaintances who suspect mental problems, and are instrumental in persuading the mentally ill to seek adequate help.
In years past, mental illness was considered a social blight, to be hidden from friends and neighbors because of the supposed shame involved. If afflicted family members were not completely hidden away within the home, they were confined in mental institutions, where they were treated as depraved animals in an almost medieval manner and atmosphere.
Centuries of study and observation fortunately now enable us to give to these patients specific treatment which has proved most helpful to them. Though half of our United States hospital beds are devoted to the care of the mentally ill, it is most significant that well over half of these mental patients are released from the hospital within one year.
If we could only look into a mirror which reflected perfect honesty, we would all have to admit some degree of mental problem in ourselves. It might be a matter of memory, or excess tension, worry, fear, etc. Fortunately, most mental disturbances can be adequately diagnosed and treated by the experienced physician skilled in psychiatry.