Biology is usually seen as a respected science. It uses labs and scientific methods to understand how diseases work and are passed on, but biology can’t always find the exact reason for all illnesses. For example, cancer is caused by unregulated cell growth due to some sort of mutation. This is can be seen through DNA testing. But what about mental illnesses? These illnesses cannot always be described strictly by biology. Yes, it could be some sort of mutation or brain imbalanced, but it doesn’t take into consideration cognitive thinking and behaviors. It’s like the nature vs. nurture debate. For mental illnesses, I believe a combination of biology and psychology is important, and yet psychology isn’t even recognized as a science in some schools. You can’t even get a BS in psychology at Emory. I think psychology can be recognized as a treatment for illnesses. People do go to psychiatrists and/or psychologists for help and it does seems to help some people.
I agree completely. I shadowed a psychiatrist over the summer and I was able to see the prevalence of mental illness in people. It seems that almost everyone may be dealing with some form of mental instability, whether it be mild depression, anxiety or more severe cases of the same. She told a lot of her patients something I think resonates explaining the importance of diagnosing and treating mental illnesses. She would explain that just as she needs glasses for her lack of eyesight, in the same way an individual may need counseling and medicine to be able to amend the psychological issues he or she can not see. Hence, I agree that more support and funding needs to be done to explore mental illnesses and their cures along with biologically based research as well as awareness of eradicating a stigma regarding mental illnesses.