Week 3: Etiology of Mental Illness

Etiology of Mental Illness

This blog will now consist of not only updates on my study, but will also be heavily focused on raising awareness about mental illness in general. While reducing stigma and informing and educating the public remains the crux of my project, my blog will also be used to record my learning experiences and minimizing my own stigma. 

Psychiatry and psychology are overlapping professions and practitioners in both psychiatry and psychology are mental health professionals and both often work together to help prevent, diagnose, and treat mental illnesses. However, they are a lot of differences between psychology and psychiatry and people sometimes find those differences confusing.

Defining Terms – Types of Mental Health Professionals:

Psychiatrist: A psychiatrist is a medical doctor (M.D. or D.O.) who specializes in preventing, diagnosing, and treating mental illness. They are trained to differentiate mental health problems from other underlying medical conditions that could present with psychiatric symptoms.

Psychologist: A psychologist has a doctoral degree (PhD, PsyD, or EdD) in psychology, which is the study of the mind and behaviors. Licensed psychologists are qualified to do counseling and psychotherapy, perform psychological testing, and provide treatment for mental disorders. They are not, however, medical doctors.

Social Worker: A clinical social worker has at least a master's degree in social work and training to be able to evaluate and treat mental illnesses. Social workers can also provide case management as well as work as an advocate for patients and their family.

Causes of Mental Illness  (from mayoclinic.org)

Mental Illnesses, in general, can be caused by both genetic and environmental factors:

Inherited traits: Mental illness can be a lot more common in people whose biological relatives also have a mental illness. There are certain genes that may increase your risk of developing a mental illness, and events/situations in life may trigger it.

Environmental exposures before birth: Exposure to environmental stressors, inflammatory conditions, toxins, alcohol, or drugs while in the womb can sometimes be linked to mental illness.

Brain chemistry: Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry signals to other parts of your brain and body. When the neural networks involving these chemicals are damaged, the function of nerve receptors and nerve systems change, leading to depression.

For my research, I started handing out questionnaires to upper school students, aged 14-17.