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Mental Illness In The Secret Life Of Bees

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Many people see mental health as an issue you can fix, like it is your fault for how your brain works. That is not the case at all. Mental illnesses are as serious as physical disabilities, and need to be treated so. We have made a lot of progress in treating those with mental illness seriously, but there is still a lot of work to do. Mental health is as important as your physical health. If a person in a sport hurt their arm they would have to sit out and recover until they’re better, mental health deserves to be treated the same way. Most people just overlook their mental wellbeing. People in today’s society undermine what they see as “lesser” mental illnesses and make them out to be not as significantly troubling to a person’s life. …show more content…

For instance in the book The Secret Life of Bees numerous characters are troubled with having different mental illnesses. The main character, Lily, evidently suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (aka PTSD) throughout the novel. As a young girl she was involved in an incident where she accidently killed her mother with a gunshot. It was obviously not her fault since she was so young but she still blamed herself for the tragedy. This resulted in her having a pretty severe case of PTSD. She suffered from terrible flashback nightmares, emotional detachment, guilt, as well as loneliness. Another one of the characters, May, suffered from critical depression along with bipolar disorder. She had suffered through the loss of her twin, April,; who was also suffering from depression and ended her life because of her case of depression. There were many times where insignificant issues caused her a lot of pain. Due to this, there should be more attention put forth to today’s society when it comes to mental …show more content…

Referencing The Secret Life of Bees once again, at the time the only way doctors saw a way to help May was to put her in a special wing of a hospital prison with people who had much more severe cases than sheher. They were not aware of ways to help her cope. Since then today’s society has learned more ways to aid those who are suffering. However, Although we continue to struggle are still struggling with blaming the individual how you cannot blame someone for his or her their mental illness or illnesses and that they cannot control them. In Changing the Way Society Understands Mental Health by Theo Bennett, he discusses this exact issue we are faced with: the fact that we are not seeing mental health issues as physical health issues. He talks about the struggle he has faced as a son of a person with bipolar disorder and the struggles of people who are suffering. Being hurt mentally has the same power over a person as being hurt physically. Not only does it hurt the people who are struggling to overcome their illness but it puts a strain on family members and loved ones since . Since all those who love you want to do is

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