Mental Illness And Mental Retardation

356 Words2 Pages
While mental illness and mental retardation may seem similar in many ways they are in fact two very different disorders. Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a persons' thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others, and daily functioning. Mental illnesses are medical conditions that often cause a diminished capacity for coping with everyday demands of life. While mental illness has nothing to do with intelligence, mental retardation refers to subaverage intelllectual functioning. A person with mental illness may be very confident socially but may have some type of character disorder. Whereas mental retardation is a developmental disability. People with developmental disabilities may experience difficulty in areas such as self-care, language, mobility, learning, self-direction, independent living, or self sufficency. Mental illness and mental retardation are also digagnosed at different times in a persons life. Mental retardation is present at birth or is diagnosed before the age of eighteen and some degree of intellectual impairment can be expected to be permanent. An individual with mental retardation needs a combination of special, interdisciplinary, or generic services, individualized supports, or other forms of assistance that are of lifelong or extended duration and are individually planned and coordinated. Mental illness though can affect someone at any age. Mental illnesses are also treatable and a person can manage their symptoms with medication and therapy. A mental illness can go away over time with treatment With metal retardation a person can be expected to function at his or her level of intelligence. A person with mental illness may switch very quickly from rational to irrational behavior with little to no triggers to cause the switch. Due to this a person with mental illness may have poor emtional control and may become
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