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Disease has a social aspect
Many problems in low-status areas
According to Cullberg there is a social aspect of mental diseases.
It is difficult for vulnerable individuals to leave social neighborhoods
with low status. Instead they "get stuck" in an environment with
insufficient integration and little support from authorities and
private networks like family and neighbors. This, so-called, social
disintegration is associated to mental ill health. Studies from
Norway describe a concentration of individuals with mental problems
in the low status areas. In some neighborhoods as much as 30%, i.e.
every third person, had mental problems. The same pattern can be
observed in Sweden.
More tolerance
It is important to broaden our opinion of normality, says Cullberg.
The general public has to become more tolerant and accept eccentric
individuals to a greater extent.
Information campaigns
Norway has a tradition of campaigns and public information. This
has allowed the psychiatric care to provide earlier treatment to
those in need of help, since many Norwegian citizens have knowledge
on symptoms. A large campaign was conducted in Sweden a couple of
years ago to contribute to a greater tolerance and generosity in
attitudes to our fellow humans.
We experience the world in different ways
- We have to remember that there is a spectrum of how we experience
the world. We are all individual human beings, and the impressions
from our environment affect us in different ways. A specific example
is how we experience our own thoughts. Some perfectly healthy individuals
consider their thoughts to be "speaking voices", without being the
least psychotic. Their normal thoughts are like that, and these
individuals are fully aware that it is thoughts and not some external
person speaking. Experiencing one«s own thoughts as voices is, however,
a risk factor for psychosis. During periods of stress, the distance
to the thoughts might be lost and the perspective might be distorted.
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