Before we can begin the exploration into the world of mental illness we have to consider two significant aspects of the development of the science of the mind and cultural expectations and popular understanding.
The first important factor to look at is the historical view that we have had about the condition of mental illness, and how we perceive it currently.
For most of our past history until the middle of the 20th century, mental illness has been poorly understood and very poorly managed. The fact that anyone who exhibited behavior that was atypical or significantly out of the norm, suggested that they should be isolated from the "normal" population and secured lest they hurt themselves, or others. From early medieval times, it was the church that determined whether or not an individual was either just blasphemous, or was truly insane. (Insane by the way is a legal term and not a clinical definition). But, the only way to isolate anyone was to create an ersatz "treatment facility" but in reality, a prison, where treatment was essentially non-existent. Even into the early 20th century, treatment consisted of submerging a patient in ice cold water, deprivation of food, and water, and not allowing interaction with other patients. But, simultaneously, the science of psychiatry was being developed  and non-typical behavior was being reconsidered as a disease or illness. And, with both WWI and WWII, the reality of "shell shock" the precursor to PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, was recognized and the effort to treat rather than isolate became more common.
But, in the 1960's and 1970's, many changes began to redefine mental behavior and to look at hospitalization as a sentence and not a cure. Medications had been developed that could significantly reduce symptoms of many mental illnesses, and psychiatry had become a mainstream treatment modality. A bold new idea was becoming a real plan to treat mental illness. The concept was simple; set up treatment centers that were staffed with a psychiatrist, therapists, and mental health professionals, and begin to have patients in hospitals return to their homes and community to be re-integrated into a more normal setting to recover. Please notice that I have not used the word "cure" as many mental illnesses are not curable but rather can be managed to provide some level of consistency for the patient. The treatment center concept was a means for supporting recovery and providing a significantly better quality of life. And, to a large degree, the concept has been successful. There are now treatment centers across the US and these are funded by State and Federal dollars, as well as by private money. But, that is not the end of the story.
We still have the stigma of mental illness as a problem no matter how it is treated. We have a patchwork of cultural understanding and tolerance. For family members dealing with mental illness or developmental disability there is an understanding of the difficulty and challenges facing chronic illness patients. For mental health professionals, the challenge is to find new ways to educate the public and increase the opportunity to assist those with marginal capabilities. But, there is always the persistent misconception that mental illness equals danger. There are many crime dramas and news stories about serial killers, sociopaths, psychopaths, and the threat to personal safety. I would be remiss to say that these threats do not exist, but the reality is that the threat is much less than the perception would suggest. I will not shy away from this reality but it is more important to look at the successes rather than the failures. It is the same as believing that because there are traffic fatalities, we will all be a statistic.
In the next post    we will consider how a mental illness is diagnosed, and how treatment is determined. But, I would like to offer a link to NAMI, The Alliance on Mental Illness, a national organization for the dissemination of information and resources for the public. Here. Thanks for following these posts, Ken...

As we continue our journey into the world of mental illness we have to ask, what is mental health? Is there a "normal", "typical", or "average", measure that we can use to suggest exactly what is "good mental health"? I hesitate to use these terms but I use them to provide context, and not to  mislead anyone to believe that there is a standard  which we can use to understand such a complex issue.
As I mentioned in the first post, mental health and mental illness rest on a continuum, and can be sometimes difficult to define. But, let's look at physical health as a way of understanding mental balance. There are times in each day that have ups and downs with regard to how we feel physically. Some people are wide awake early and feel good and ready to face the day. Others are a bit slower to adapt to the day and face a more difficult start. And, during the day, we often have a good outlook, and at other times, the day seems to drag on forever. And what happens if we have a cold, started the day with a backache or stiff neck from sleeping? At any time of the day we have may have some minor malady that colors the way we feel physically. And, if we had taken a snapshot at any time of day, the result would be only a brief look at how we felt, and only at that time. It is only when we evaluate the entire day that we have a feeling of good or poor physical health. It is important to recognize that most of our reflection of a day in our life is based on perception! So, for example, what if you have a backache that is causing a problem? It can be acute, and only troubling periodically, or chronic, and  a constant discomfort in your life. But, the manner and methods of dealing with the problem determines your perception of how good or bad you feel.
So now, let's translate this analogy into the world of mental health and wellness. At any time of the day you may encounter traffic problems, road rage, a situation at work or home that can be considered a disturbance from the norm. And, worse, it could be the dissolution of a relationship, personal trauma with a death, or other unbalancing of what would be considered typical. And, the manner in which you deal with these occurrences and perceive the impact on your life, defines mental health for you. and only you.
So, is there a way that we can measure our personal or individual mental wellness? The answer really becomes a question of how we perceive our life, how we react to the ever changing world around us, and how we manage to integrate the bad with the good. By definition, the normal, typical, or average, is different for each of us and sometimes extremely difficult to quantify. We live in a complicated world with ever.changing stimuli, and life changing events, but we can control the way we see, hear, and react to those changes. But, what happens when the situation cannot be controlled due to brain chemistry, and an inability to have any insight of perception? We will begin to explore the world of mental illness in the next post. Thanks for following this journey...

This is the first entry in an in-depth investigation of mental health and wellness. This is a complex issue and I hope to make it interesting and relevant to life in the 21st century. Mental health and mental illness follows a continuum and it is very much a personal subject. So, before I begin, I think that it might be helpful to see how I arrived at this idea to begin a long running dialog on mental health, my qualifications, and the strategy to provide a unique view of a sometimes bewildering subject. In the past year I have maintained the four blog pages currently part of observationsblog.com and have tried to educate, entertain, and inform readers in a variety of areas. According to comments received so far, the site has been well received and I have had good, sound constructive criticism and encouragement to continue my efforts to provide an ad free, open site. But, in the back of my mind I have always wanted to tackle the issue of mental illness, but in a new and innovative way. And now, I am ready to take the plunge with our readers.
Despite the fact that I have been employed in the fields of chemistry and electronics as my primary careers, I have always been involved in the humanities and the helping professions. I started a drop-in center for troubled youth, am a founding member of a volunteer ambulance service, and a family mediator. So, in 1990 I went back to college to obtain a degree in mental health services. I then changed my full-time career to mental health as a therapeutic case manager and worked in two community-based mental health centers.
In the intervening years I have had the opportunity to work with well over three hundred patients with both severe mental illness (SMI) and severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). Both of these terms will become evident over time as we look at what mental illness is, and how it can manifest itself, and affect the quality of life.
It seemed to me that I could present information about mental illness by doing the research and re-writing it as a post entry. But, anyone can read, comprehend, and rewrite information, and perhaps adequately cover the subject. The better alternative, in my opinion, is to present the information in the form of case histories. These will be composites of patients that I have been involved with as a community-based case manager. I am with patients in their homes, hospitals, their community, and  their families.I have had the opportunity to learn and understand mental illness in a very intimate manner. There are cases with remarkable recovery, and those with tragic endings. It is all part of a complex and yet vital part of life for those with a mental illness. I look forward to sharing these vignettes with our readers. To end this post, I have included a chart that captures the extent and demographic impact of mental illness in the US. It is copied from the National Institute of Mental Health from 2008, the most recent accurate data: