Discuss the historical pattern of physical and mental health in the United States

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The concepts of physical and mental health have changed considerably in the United States. Initially illness was believed to be caused by "bad fluids" and cured through bleeding, purging, and vomiting. As medicine became professionalized a more accurate diagnosis of illness evolved as well as its treatment. During the early part of the industrial age disease and death were linked to a number of conditions caused by unsanitary conditions, infected food, and unclean water. Because Americans were physically hard workers (coal miners, farmers, steel workers, lumberjacks) they avoided deaths linked to heart disease. As technology improved and physical labor was replaced by technology diseases related to inactivity increased as well as other diseases, such as cancer, that had previously been undetectable. Mental illness is more difficult to make a comparison between the early U.S. and today. Because a professionalized mental health system was nonexistent longer than a professional medical system, there was less accurate diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. In addition, life was less stressful in the past and children were more often reared by a two-parent family. With the advent of the medicalization of mental illness, labels were applied to conditions that were previously ignored or explained by non-medical means.