I
have chosen to write about mental illness (option 2) for my blog because while
working as a Dental Hygienist I have seen many patients with mental illness. I
want to be able to learn more about them and why it happens in order to help
provide treatment options that will help them improve their oral hygiene. Many
that I see with mental illness don't have good oral hygiene or require a lot of
assistance from a relative or home provider.
What
I learned in this quiz was how much a year is used for mental illness. That
amount was $193.2 Billion. It was definitely not what I expected but as I
thought about it. Many people not only suffer from psychotic disorders,
schizophrenia or PTSD but also depression and anxiety.
I
do know someone who suffers from a mental illness and that is my ex-husband. He
suffers from PTSD. He is an ex-Marine who was in over 4 years. He was
discharged from the military because of an incident that occurred during his
first marriage.
The
illness he has has made a big impact on his life. Him and I separated because he
couldn't control his PTSD or wasn't trying to get the help he needed. When we married,
I already had 2 children from a previous marriage, so we decided to have one
together. Well, while pregnant he did many things that just weren't acceptable
and I didn't want my children to see how he was acting and think it was
acceptable so we separated. Things had gotten worse but he is now trying to
change his life around for our son. At the moment he is trying to get help by
attending a camping and mentoring program known as Camp Hope to help those who
are wounded veterans with PTSD.
What
I learned about mental illness just from knowing him is that it is a very
serious matter. One moment he was the perfect husband and father and the next
he would just sit there and stare off into space. At night he would be so
paranoid that he would stay up till 3 in the morning and walk around the house
because he swore he heard something and needed to check things out. It was
really terrifying. There were moments that even I felt like I was beginning to
lose it. When we would argue he would take it to the extreme and attempted many
times to take his life with my hand gun as well cut his wrists and inner thigh.
Separation was the only option for us because he wasn't trying to get the help
he needed. I needed to care for our children and well I couldn't do it while he
acted the way he did. Though since our separation, he has made some improvement.
He continues to struggle with his demons, as he calls it, but we have a much
better relationship. We are now able to communicate much better for our son and decide together what is best for him. However, he does still have his moments. When he is upset
about something, he goes to the extreme but I now know how to better approach
and handle it. I first try getting him to understand why we must do things a
certain way and if that doesn't work then I just stay professional and tell him
that when he is ready to talk then I will. I try my best to not be
confrontational, because that doesn't make things better. If anything, it makes
things much worse, and my main interest is making sure my son has two parents
that can co parent and are able to give him what he needs in order to grow up
healthy and happy.
Retrieved Photo of Mental
illness from
Hi Mary, I've worked in a dental office briefly and I actually noticed the same thing. The majority of the patients that we had that had some type of mental illness had bad oral hygiene. I would do their actual treatment plan and while explaining to them the treatment that was needed gave me an opportunity to dig further and understand why the treatment was needed and how it can be prevented in the future. I noticed that a few of the patients just had severe anxiety issues. Some dental patients experience some anxiety about their dental visits, and in some cases it could lead to dental phobia. I learned that people with mental illness, particularly severe mental illness, are at greater risk of oral health problems because of poor nutrition and oral hygiene and financial or other barriers to accessing dental care.
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