Anosognosia is when a person cannot understand that they have a serious psychiatric illness . About half of the people living with schizophrenia, and a lesser percent who with Bipolar disorder, show this feature. It is also common with Alzheimer's disease and Dementia. Lack of insight or of awareness. Is the main cause for noncompliance with treatment plans. The person feels they are not ill, so why should they go to appointments, take medication or participate in therapy.
What is mental illness?
A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the life's ordinary demands and stressors.
Serious mental illnesses include Major depression, Schizophrenia, Bipolar
disorder, Obsessive Compulsive disorder, Panic disorder, Posttraumatic stress disorder and Borderline Personality disorder. The important news is that with a mental illness recovery is possible.
Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion or income. Mental
illnesses are not the signs of weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Mental illnesses are treatable and most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms by participating in a treatment plan.
Why a person cannot see what those around them see, change in behavior, delusions and other apparent symptoms is not psychological denial. Impaired awareness of illness is a strange the sometimes gross symptoms that, to others, are blatant psychiatric symptoms and seem so obvious it’s hard to believe the person experiencing them is not aware he or she is ill.
What can you do when confronted with this problem in a friend or family member?
Threatening confrontations may be met with denial of symptoms and may aggravate the persons symptoms. Approaching the person in a supportive way will be more beneficial. Check to see about outreach workers who work with people who lack
insight.
A person's lack of insight can create dangerous situations. The combination of no insight and dangerous acts requires intervention. \There are laws for outpatient treatment or outpatient commitment. This requires a person to engage in treatment and gives the state authority to bring the person to a treatment center if they do not. In most states, doctors are required document the person's state and the reasons for the requested commitment and a judge decides. When taking medications, awareness of the illness improves in some patients.
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