History has not been kind to people who have suffered mental illness. Time and time again people who have issues in terms of reasoning and rationalization have not been treated well. In ancient times, they were seen as something immoral and were cast aside. In the medieval times, they were thought to be possessed by a demon and sentenced to death. There was no treatment or means to aid these people with their problems. There were either left to endure the displeasure and affliction which was going on inside of their psyche or were killed because of it. Though in today’s era, there are more ways to help people who suffer these problems than there has ever been, there is still a lot of mental health reform to be done.

Mental health treatment facilities in America had not even gone into development until 1840. Before then those who were distressed because of mental illnesses were either ignored or, if they committed a crime, were simply thrown into asylums, a place which is proven to be counterproductive in the treatment of mental disorders. For people who were confined to these asylums, it was very hard to get out. In 1840, Dorothea Dix started her own inquiry into the living standards of those who were sentenced to asylums. Dix invested years of her life investigating asylums and documenting the abuse of those who were confined there. She then sent the details to the General Assembly of North Carolina. Nothing came of it. Then a writer named Nelly Bly decided to pose as a woman suffering mental illness and went inside of a mental asylum. She then wrote about her harsh treatment inside and published it in the paper. From there mental health treatment began to reform. In the early 1900s, people started to think of what it truly means to be insane. In the 1930s, people started to think about ways in which insanity can be cured. Most of these methods, such as electroshock therapy, were crude and later proven to have done much more damage than good. From there, in the 1940s and 1950s, doctors began to bring innovation into mental treatment in the form of chemistry to help with mental imbalances. Also during this era, mental institutions were no longer seen as good options for mental health treatment. We now have modern methods of mental health treatment such as therapy and medicine (Dual Diagnosis).

Modern mental health treatment has been a good step forward in the battle against mental illness. Over the years, modern medicine has developed pills and treatments to counteract the negative effects that mental illness can have. Examples of this are Lithium, which is designed to deal with Bipolar disorder, and Prozac, which is designed to deal with depression. Another modern method for mental health treatment is talk therapy. This treatment is a patient having a conversation with his therapist about the issues that plague him or her (National Alliance of Mental Health).

Psyche guides go into deeper detail about the type of mental health treatment that is available in our modern era. It starts off by going to into the different variations of therapy. One of the major types of therapy is cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy is a type of therapy which focuses on thinking about the reasons that we act a certain way and do a certain thing. There are many different forms of it. There is rational behavior therapy, which focuses on rationalizing the things that upset us, and rational living therapies, which target mental illness by using a multitude of motivational techniques. Next there is cognitive therapy, which hones in on a specific behavior and seeks to change it. Then there is dialectic behavioral therapy, which is a combination of behavioral and cognitive therapies.

These are not the only methods of therapy, only the more orthodox methods of therapy. There is also psychoeducation, which seeks to educate both a patient and members of his or her family on how to deal with the effects of his or her mental illness. There are self-help groups and group therapies, which are similar to psychoeducation, though they take place with strangers instead of the men and women one shares DNA with. There is electroshock therapy, which has been modified from the crude method of the 1940s and 1950s. The difference between that method and this method is that this method uses a much lower voltage of electricity and it is also paired with a talk therapy as well. Finally, there is health and wellness treatment, which uses healthy food and nutrition as a means to counter the horror which a mental illness can bring. There are mental health facilities as well which is used for extreme cases of mental issues. When one is put into a facility like this they are giving treatment for their mental illness 24 hours a day, seven days a week (Psyche guide).

Although there has been much overhaul in mental health treatment, it is not perfect. There is still at a lot of work that needs to be done. It will never be perfect but it can be better. There are many areas of treatment which still need to be reformed so that they can truly help those who suffer mental illnesses.

One major problem in the mental health industry today is the overprescription of drugs. Many doctors today simply give their patients drugs and then send them on their way. Prescription drugs treat symptoms but do not do anything to help with treating the disease. Doctor Graham C.L Davey describes the issue more in an article in Psychology today. He states that although there has been a large increase in the amount of people who take prescription drugs, they should not be the number one treatment of mental health issues. An example of this is depression. When it comes to depression, 50 to 60 percent of people who take antidepressants have shown improvements. Nonetheless, there are still a numerous amount of people who antidepressants have been counterproductive in helping. In fact, there are some whose depression has been made worse by these drugs. It is also stated to be much more effective to combine both medication and therapy. The problem of medication making the illness worse does only apply to depression medication but also medicine for other mental disorders (Psychology Today).

Another problem with prescription drugs is the negativity which is behind them. When a person is prescribed drugs for their mind they are essentially told there is something wrong with them. That person could be swayed away from treatment because they do not want to believe that something is wrong with them (Psychology today). There are a great many people who will not get mental health treatment for the simple fact that there is such a great stigma behind it. In 2011, only 59.6 percent of people who suffered a wide range of mental illness actually got treatment for them. The idea that needing medicine for your mind is a sign of weakness is a large factor when it comes to that. This notion needs to be changed if there is ever going to be change in mental health treatment (Association of Psychology Science).

Mental health treatment has come a long way, though it still needs to go a further way. There still needs to be more reform. The progress which it has had should be appreciated. Nonetheless, we should expect more.