Psychological Disorders and The Homeless:

Psychological disorders affect millions of individuals and families around the world, making them a very important problem facing our world today. But if psychological illnesses are such an important problem, why don’t we hear about then more often?  Why are most people completely uninformed on these disorders? We all hear news about Cancer, Heart Attacks, and other health related  problems, but how often do you hear mention of illnesses such as Schizophrenia, Dissociative Personality Disorder, or Bipolar? Unless you have a family member suffering from one of these illnesses, your answer would most likely be: never. After all, psychological disorders are not an everyday conversation topic. But why is this? The reason for the ignorance of today is the same reason that for ages mentally ill individuals were kept locked up in asylums or thrown out on the streets: psychosocial illness is ugly and frightening. The thing that makes them truly frightening and that separates them from other kinds of illness is that they do not have a strictly physical cause; the illness is not purely within the body but also within the mind. This aspect is also what makes treatment so difficult. Doctors cannot simply “cure” a psychological illness with an operation or a certain medicine; those afflicted with these illnesses take a great deal of time, attention, and therapy to recover.  Psychological illnesses are difficult enough just to talk about, let alone to experience firsthand, but  thousands of individuals in the United States alone experience these illnesses every day.

My own eyes were opened to the reality of mental illness after I recently attended an outreach to the homeless in my city.  This outreach was organized by a Church that meets every week specifically to minister to the homeless population. At the outreach a worship service was held and clothing was passed out to those in need. We also helped provide Thanksgiving dinner to those who would otherwise go without.  If you have ever wondered what place the mentally ill have in today’s society, the answer would most definitely be, on the streets.  Although not all homeless individual, suffer from mental disorders, a great majority of them do. From my own observations, out of the small percentage of my city’s homeless that attended the outreach, about one fourth of them suffered from some type of psychological disorder. Depression, Schizophrenia, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder were a few illnesses present in the individuals who attended.  

My father, who also helped with the outreach, spoke to one man who had been on the streets for 6 months. This man told him about how he was once a worship pastor at a church and had lived a drastically different life.  My father asked him how he became homeless and he simply replied that he made friends with the wrong people and made some bad decisions. It is possible that this man is one of the many who have had their lives destroyed by a Substance-related Disorder. This psychological disorder is directly related to problems individuals face with drug dependence and abuse. Some might just simply refer to this disorder as lack of self control or overindulgence, but it is indeed a true illness and is often the result of an attempt at coping with another psychological illness. The man my father spoke with is an example of this. When my father offered him food, he refused it saying that his stomach could no longer handle real food. This was due to the fact that he drank nothing but Listerine (the mouth wash) and he said that is he ate real food his stomach would explode. He started drinking Listerine because of its alcoholic contents and he has come to believe that if he were to ever stop drinking it he would die. After hearing this story I realized that this man most likely suffers from OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). This disorder is characterized by obsessions (unwanted thoughts or ideas you simply can’t help thinking) and Compulsions (irresistible urges to do things that are strange and illogical). It is heart breaking that he truly believes that his life would be in danger if he stopped drinking, when it is actually his consumption of the Listerine that could end up killing him. It is hard to imagine what this man experiences every day battling with these thoughts and urges.

               As the Outreach went on, several individuals stood out to me in particular as exhibiting abnormal behavior.  During the worship service, I noticed a man standing behind me. When I noticed him first he was talking loudly to another man, making passionate yet random comments about how Christian people should act, about God and the bible. I noticed him again later, while the minister was preaching. This time he was pacing back and forth behind me spouting random bible verses and talking to himself.  The behavior he exhibited made me suppose that he too, perhaps suffered from a psychological disorder. After considering his behavior and speech I came to conclude that he might suffer from a type of Schizophrenia.  Individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia experience distortion of reality. This distortion often leads to disturbances in their thought and speech processes as well as withdrawal from those close to them. Formal thought disorder is the official name for disturbances in which individuals can no longer think or speak logically. People who have this disorder quickly veer off topic when asked a question, speaking words that are seemingly nonsense but make perfect sense in their own minds.  Schizophrenia is a very serious disease and people who suffer from it have an extremely hard time leading regular lives. The man I noticed at the outreach is an example of many others like him, to whom every second of everyday is spend half in our world and half in a reality all their own.

The man my father spoke with and many others who attended the outreach exhibited a definite attitude of learned helplessness. You could tell just by looking into their faces that some of them had given up any hope of a better life, and that they had no intention of fighting the circumstances in which they now find themselves. After observing their behavior, I concluded that it is very possible that many of them suffer from major depression.  Major depression is a mood disorder that is characterized by extreme feelings of hopelessness, and discouragement. The intense emotions felt during depression affect every aspect of a person’s life. Individuals suffering from depression experience a decrease in their ability to concentrate, make decisions, and interact with others. These symptoms last for weeks, months and sometimes years. This disorder can cause healthy and successful people to deteriorate into hopeless, purposeless beings struggling to live from day to day

Throughout my recent study and observations of psychological disorders I have learned a great deal.  The most important thing I have learned is that before you label someone of as simply “crazy”, you must first stop and truly examine their behavior. Ask yourself why they act the way they do. Try to understand life from their point of view, and show empathy. It is possible that one whom you had once labeled “crazy” is actually suffering from a severe psychological disorder. It is important for us to realize that these illnesses are real, and that they are effecting real peoples lives.  Today’s world is plagued with countless problems, and it is easy to simple right off psychological disorders as unimportant. It is easy to remain oblivious to these illnesses that are so unpleasant and scary, but we should instead rise above our ignorance. We should endeavor to learn from the mistakes of our predecessors and to address psychological illness with the attention and care it deserves. 

Here is video that was made for the outreach I helped out with. 

The Kingdom of Psychology:

Long ago, in the far away galaxy of Wisdom there was the planet of Knowledge, and on this Plant resided the Kingdom of Psychology.  The People of Psychology were among the wisest and most intelligent in the entire galaxy. They devoted their lives to the study and practice of their kingdom’s science: the study of Psychology. The kingdom was divided into five cities, and each city had its own specialized perspective on the study of Psychology. The five cities were: Neuroscience City, Cognitiville, Behavioropolise, Humanistic Town, and Psychodynamia. These five cities were governed by The Council of Cognition. The Council was made up of 5 members, one from each of the five cities and it governed with logic and fairness. The Kingdom of Psychology was prosperous and peaceful, and because of their great devotion they were looked upon with admiration by all other inhabitants of the Plant Knowledge.   But in spite of all of its wisdom and prosperity the kingdom held one major problem: isolation. Although the people of Psychology spent their lives in constant study, they did not share their knowledge with the rest of the galaxy. The kingdom was isolated and impenetrable, and as a result the science of Psychology was kept within the kingdom’s boundaries, never to be shared with the outside world. The universe would never have been enlightened to the great science of Psychology if it had not been for one man who dared to imagine a larger world.

One beautiful sunny day in the City of Congnitiville, Gilbert Edmund Intellect was strolling through his beloved rose garden and thinking strange thoughts. Gilbert Edmund Intellect was a man of 67 years. He was 6 feet tall with a bushy grey beard, short grey hair, clear grey eyes and a humorous expression. This fine day Gilbert, or perhaps it would be best to call him “Mr. Intellect” in view of his age, was pondering the meaning of life. You see, Mr. Intellect had spent his 67 years in constant study of science and he had gained immense knowledge. In fact, Mr. Intellect was known far and wide as the most intelligent man in all five cities of Psychology. What made Mr. Intellect so admirable was because; unlike most other inhabitants of Psychology, he had studied in all five Psychological cities and knew the guidelines each of the five different perspectives.  This was a feat that had never been done before. But despite all of his great knowledge, Mr. Intellect felt that there must be more to life then what he had learned. He dreamed of life beyond the boundaries of Psychology and after so many years of study he was ready to see his dreams come to reality. And so, in his own rose garden on that same sunny day, Mr. Intellect decided once and for all that he would leave behind his own wonderful kingdom and boldly go where no psychologist had gone before. 

Starting out on his great new adventure, Mr. Intellect had first to travel across his own kingdom before he could reach the galaxies beyond. The first stop on his adventure was a place not far from his own city, Behavioropolise the home of Behavioral Psychology, the scientific study of how people behave. In Behavioropolise lived one of Mr. Intellect’s closest friends, B. F. Skinner who was an expert himself on the subject of learning. Mr. Intellect requested that Skinner join him on his travels and Skinner immediately agreed. After gaining the supplies needed for their journey, the two then continued on together. The next stop was Neuroscience City, the city in which people view Psychology from a Neuroscience perspective. The inhabitants of this city focus on the effect that biological functions have on behavior. There, the two travelers visited a neuroscience clinic to check up on the functioning of their hearts, and minds.  After their quick stop in Neuroscience City they traveled on through Humanistic Town and made their final stop in the city of Psychodynamia. In this city Mr. Intellect visited another of his good friends, a man by the name of Sigmund Freud. Known to all of Psychodynamia as simply “Freud”, he was the father of his own his field of study. Freud was the founder of Psycodynamic Psychology the scientific study of the unconscious mind.  Mr. Intellect and Skinner asked Freud if he too would join in their quest beyond Psychology’s boarders. Freud was eager to accept their offer and the company of three finally departed from boarders of their beloved kingdom and ventured out into the wilds of the wide world of Knowledge. 

Once the Three were beyond Psychological boarders they discovered a world more fascinating and vast then even Mr. Intellect had ever imagined possible. They discovered other kingdoms that resided on the planet of Knowledge, and each kingdom had its own science of which it studied.  They visited the Kingdom of Biology and saw for the first time millions of new animals and microscopic life forms. In the Kingdom of the Arts they viewed wondrous paintings and met artists such as Van Gogh and Michelangelo. Within the kingdom of Mathematics they were taught the origins of numbers and met the genius men who invented the very first equations of arithmetic.  After traveling far and wide throughout all of Knowledge and experiencing the magnificent information each kingdom had to offer, Mr. Intellect started to think strange thoughts once again. Above all else that he had noticed in his travels, what had impacted him most was that each Kingdom of Knowledge shared its own knowledge with all the others. And beyond even that, each kingdom sent its inhabitants out into the galaxy to share their own intelligence with everyone who might have need of it.  With this idea in mind Mr. Intellect began to ponder the significance of what Psychology had to offer the other inhabitants of Knowledge and the galaxies beyond.  At last, Mr. Intellect decided once and for all that Psychology did indeed have much to offer the rest of the universe, and he decided that he, along with his companions, would make it their life’s work to spread The Science of Psychology throughout The Galaxy of Wisdom and to the universe beyond. 

After their many years of travel Mr. Intellect and his company returned at last to The Kingdom of Psychology. They were welcomed home with a huge celebration as everyone was eager to hear of the traveler’s adventures. Mr. Intellect did not waste time in telling his fellow psychologists of his many discoveries and his new mission to spread Psychology. He and his companions told everyone of the wonders of the outside world, and of the new sciences they had learned. They told of the new life forms to be found in Biology, and the great health advances being made in The Kingdom of Medical Science. They shared with them Art, Mathematics and the Life Sciences. Everyone who heard their tales was amazed, and the people of Psychology were inspired to travel in search of new ideas to apply to their own study.  As they discovered the sciences of Knowledge, the psychologists also began to develop new subfields of psychology such as: Health Psychology, Evolution Psychology, and Quantitative Psychology.  Not long after his arrival, Mr. Intellect spoke before the Council of Cognition and requested that one psychologist from each of the five cities be sent out into the galaxy to share their knowledge with all who were willing to learn. The Council soon accepted his request and began to gather each city’s wisest individual to be sent. Among those chosen were Skinner and Freud who had traveled with Mr. Intellect. Along with the rest, they embarked throughout the galaxy bringing the science of Psychology wherever they went.  Because of Mr. Gilbert Edmund Intellect no longer did the Kingdom of Psychology live in isolation, but instead its boarders were opened to all who wished to enter, and the people of Psychology now devoted all their resources into spreading their beloved science throughout the galaxies. The people of Psychology eventually ventured as far into the universe as Planet Earth.

                                                THE END